
i 



EARLY PROMISE. 




LONDON: 
PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION. 
1868. 



205449 

'13 



CHISWICK PRESS I — PRINTED BY WHITTINGHAM AND WILKINS, 
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE. 



PREFACE. 



HIS Volume is printed as a slight 
Memorial of one who early enlisted 
himself under the banner of Christ, 
and who, during his short career on earth, 
p oved by his consistent conduct and by the 
high Christian principles which actuated him 
on all occasions, that his Religion was not 
merely a profession, but that he was a sincere 
and devoted follower of the Saviour whom he 
so truly loved and valued 

It has been suggested that Sermons, written 
by so young a person (many of them during 
school days) may serve to prove that the 
period of boyhood, however joyous, need not 
necessarily be altogether thoughtless ; and if 




vi PREFACE. 

the perusal of this little volume should lead 
some young minds to consider the great im- 
portance of Remembering their Creator in 
the days of their youth/' it will not have been 
printed in vain ; and should the saving truths, 
set forth in these Sermons by one who has 
now passed from time 'into Eternity, be 
brought home to the heart of any one, to God 
be the Glory. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

Memoir ..... . . . xi 

Sermon L 
ADVENT, 1861. 

" Awake, O north wind ; and come, thou south ; blow 
upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. 
Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his plea- 
sant fruits." — Song of Solomon \v. 16 . . . . i 

Sermon II. 

ST. THOMAS'S DAY, 1862. 

" Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have 
believed."— xx. 29 . . . . . . - 15 

Sermon IIL 
THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR 1860. 

*' And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light 
shall not be clear, nor dark : but it shall be one day, 
which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night : 
but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall 
be YighV^— Zechariah xiv, 6, 7 . . . . 25 



viii 



CONTENTS. 



Sermon IV. 
NEW YEAR'S DAY, 1859. 

Let us get up early to the vineyard ; let us see if 
the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and 
the pomegranates bud forth : there will I give thee my 
\oYes,''^—Song of Solomon vii. 12. . . . . 



Sermon V. 
NEW YEAR'S DAY, 1863. 

" For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall 
be much required." — Luke xii. 48 

Sermon VI. 

THE EVE OF THE PURIFICATION OF SAINT 
MARY THE VIRGIN, 1863. 

"And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary His 
mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising 
again of many in Israel ; and for a sign which shall be 
spoken against ; (yea, a sword shall pierce through thy 
own soul also ;) that the thoughts of many hearts may 
be revealed." — Luke ii. 34, 35 . . . 

Sermon VII. 
ASH WEDNESDAY, 1859. 

" Come now, and let us reason together, saith the 
Lord : Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as 
white as snow ; though they be red like crimson, they 
shall be as wool." — Isaiah i. 18 



CONTENTS. 



Sermon VI I L 
ASCENSION DAY, 1863. 

For our conversation is in heaven ; from whence 
also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who 
shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned 
like unto His glorious body, according to the working 
whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto 
Himself." — Philippians iii. 20, 21 

Sermon IX. 
WHITSUNDAY, 1861, 

"And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you 
another comforter, that He may abide with you for 
ever ; even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot 
receive because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him ; 
but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you, and shall 
be in you." — John xiv. 16, 17 

Sermon X. 
THE FALSE WAY. 1861. 

" There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, 
but the end thereof are the ways of death." — Proverbs 
xiv. 12 . 



^ht onlp son of fifs tnotfier. ano stic a toilroto.—LuKE th. 12- 



MEMOIR. 



HE subject of this little memoir was an 
only and fondly-cherished child. He 
was born on January 22nd, 1843 ; and 
his parents received him as a precious charge 
committed to their trust to train for heaven ; and, 
as such, they endeavoured in faith to sow good 
seed in his young heart. Their prayers on his be- 
half were answered ; that seed was watered by God's 
blessing, and brought forth fruit. 

He had good health, and a most happy, cheerful 
disposition, a retentive memory, and perhaps more 
than ordinary quickness and intelligence,which made 
learning to read easy work to him : and when, at his 
earnest request, his mother began teaching him a 
few months before he was four years old, he made 
rapid progress, and could soon read anything that 

b 




xii 



MEMOIR. 



came in his way. He early evinced a lively interest 
in whatever was connected with a clergyman ; and 
for several years one of his favourite amusements 
was to fancy himself the rector of a country village, 
and to carry out in imagination the various duties 
of a parish priest ; sometimes visiting the sick and 
sorrowful, and administering to their comfort ; at 
others the management of a clothing club, or hold- 
ing a missionary meeting ; and on every Sunday 
evening an imaginary class of children were cate- 
chised and instructed by him. All was done so 
seriously, and he so completely identified himself 
with what he imagined to be going on, that it was 
often difficult not to think that years had passed 
away, and that he really was what he fancied him- 
self to be. 

It may be truly said, that from the age of four 
years his great wish was to be a clergyman, and 
he never changed his mind. He was not taken to 
church till he could follow the service, which he did 
at four and a half years : and when not able to go to 
church his delight was to read the service to anyone 
left in charge of him, frequently adding a sermon 
of his own composing, which, simple as it was, 
served to show that he quite understood the religious 



MEMOIR. 



xiii 



instruction which he received, and knew how to 
apply the texts and hymns which he had learnt. 
Writing sermons was always a favourite occupation 
both at home and at school ; and as he gave his 
mind to the subject and searched his Bible dili- 
gently, some even of his early productions are 
really both interesting and surprising ; and each 
year his advance in Bible knowledge, and his 
increasing interest in religion, were clearly dis- 
cernible. 

His school career commenced when he was nine 
and a half years of age, and then he was placed at 
the Rev. J. D. Addison's, at Rodwell, near Wey- 
mouth ; and during the two years he was there, he 
never returned home without a high character, and 
proofs of the approbation of his tutors. This was also 
the case at his next school, the Rev. P. H. Nind's, 
Woodcote House, near Henley-on-Thames ; from 
whence, after two years, he was removed to Eton, 
having in that period, as in his former school, be- 
come the head boy. 

It was whilst he was at Mr. Nind's, and just 
before the Christmas holidays of 1855, that it 
pleased God suddenly to deprive him of his beloved 
father. He felt the event deeply : but from that time 



xiv 



MEMOIR. 



the warm affection which he had always evinced 
for both his parents seemed to be centred in his 
widowed mother, for whom nothing could exceed 
his tenderness and consideration. 

He remained at Woodcote till after the summer 
holidays of 1856, and left it with as high a character 
as he had brought from Rodwell, both his masters 
bearing testimony to the Christian principle which 
had on all occasions actuated his conduct ; Mr, 
Addison saying ^' that he had never had occasion 
to give him a reproving look," and Mr. Nind speak- 
of him as a really good boy, in whose praise too 
much could not be said." 

Previous to his father s death it had been arranged 
that, upon leaving Woodcote, he should be placed 
with the Rev. J. L. Joynes, at Eton, and certainly 
the five years spent there were some of the happiest 
in his life. He passed through the trials and 
temptations of a public school with principles 
strengthened rather than weakened ; and the evil with 
which he unavoidably came in contact created from 
the first no feeling but that of disgust ; and thus he 
was mercifully preserved from all wish to partake 
in the evil from which his nature instinctively 
shrank. 



MEMOIR. 



XV 



In i860 he stood for the "Newcastle Scholar- 
ship," and his name appeared in the list of the Se- 
lect." His pious gratitude for this unexpected 
success is evinced by the following lines written 
hastily at the moment of excitement, and found 
after his death amongst his papers. 

Impromptu on reading 7ny name in the List of the Select 
for the Newcastle. 

Shall mercies, O my God, like these, 

Unnumbered though they be, 
Excite no love in my dull heart. 

No gratitude to Thee ? 

*^ A recompense I cannot give, 
Return I cannot make, 
But oh ! accept at least my love. 
For Christ my Saviour's sake/' 

March 2()th, i860. 

At Christmas in this year he gained the first 
prize for " Richards's English Essay." The subject 
of the essay was The History of Carthage." 

In 1 861 he again stood for the Newcastle ;" and 
though he did not gain it, he was on that occasion 
head of the " Select ;" and the Newcastle Examiner 
told his tutor that his Divinity was very excellent. 
The questions that year related particularly to 



xvi MEMOIR, 

Practical Religion, and close knowledge of Bible 
teaching. 

At Easter this year, being now in the sixth form, 
he left Eton with sincere regret on his part, and 
beloved and respected by all who knew him, as the 
following extract from Mr. Joynes's letter to his 
mother bears ample testimony. " Your son leaves 
Eton as few leave it, highly distinguished, popular 
with his friends, and above all, with the most ex- 
cellent character. I need not dwell on this ; the 
feelings of a mother with regard to such a son are 
beyond the reach of words." 

He had worked hard ; and total rest of mind and 
body for a time would have been most beneficial 
for him, especially as he always suffered from hay 
fever, which is so weakening to the system : but 
such was his impatience to commence his career at 
Oxford, as leading to the fulfilment of his fondest 
wishes, that he went up to reside in May, having 
been previously entered at Exeter College. He 
was not disappointed in college life, which suited 
him in many respects, and he much enjoyed it ; 
but unfortunately, from the first, the climate of Ox- 
ford disagreed with his health, especially in the 
spring; and this was very apparent when he re- 



MEMOIR. xvii 

turned home at Easter in 1862, and hay fever laid 
stronger hold upon him than usual : however, 
having been greatly renovated by rest and sea air, 
he went up again in October ; but when he returned 
home in December, he had manifestly lost ground ; 
and he was so strongly advised by the medical 
men consulted not to risk another spring at Ox- 
ford, that he made up his mind most reluctantly to 
take his name off the books. The trial was a 
severe one, and keenly was it felt ; but it was re- 
ceived in a Christian spirit, and, bitter as the dis- 
appointment was, a murmur never escaped his lips. 

During the time that he was at Oxford, his cha- 
racter stood high ; and ere he had been there a 
year, Dr. Lightfoot, the rector of his college, both 
wrote and spoke of him as a young man who had 
conducted himself to his entire satisfaction, and 
that he felt sure that if he continued to work as he 
had done, and had good health, he could not fail 
to distinguish himself at the university ; he men- 
tioned that he had stood for a scholarship, and that 
he had passed a most creditable exammation." 

His having been obliged, owing to the failure of 
his health, to leave Oxford, though it in some 

c 



xviii MEMOIR. 

measure damped, by no means extinguished his 
long cherished hope of entering the church, and he 
set himself to inquire from what other college he 
could be ordained. There were difficulties about 
several ; and before making up his mind he deter- 
mined upon touring in Scotland for a few weeks, 
as a plan which had been formed for his going 
abroad with a friend had failed. He set off in the 
middle of September, went as far north as Bal- 
moral, and greatly enjoyed the beautiful scenery 
through which he passed. On his way south, in 
November, he stopped at York, intending to pro- 
ceed from thence to Peterborough and Oxford 
before returning home : but a chill caught in York 
Minster proved more serious than was at first 
apprehended : and though his earnest wish to reach 
his own home was mercifully granted, more alarm- 
ing symptoms supervened ; and at the end of ten 
short days, during which nothing could exceed his 
gentleness and patience, his pure and chastened 
spirit winged its happy flight to join the church 
triumphant, there to rejoice for ever in the presence 
of that Saviour whom he so truly loved, and under 
whose banner he enlisted himself from his earliest 



MEMOIR. xix 

youth. His death took place on the 26th day of 
November, 1863, only a few weeks before he com- 
pleted his twenty-first year. Deeply was he re- 
gretted by all who knew and loved him. 



A FEW EXTRACTS FROM 
LETTERS 



WRITTEN FROM SCHOOL TO HIS MOTHER 
BETWEEN THE AGES OF THIRTEEN 
AND SIXTEEN. 

WooDcoTE House. 

May Zth, 1856. 

I AM sure, my precious mother, that this day 
has acted upon your mind in the same manner as 
it has upon mine, by bringing back many sad 
recollections of the past ; but you can feel like me 
that my dearest father is doubtless spending a far 
happier birthday in heaven than alLthe love and 
affection of his friends could give him in this poor, 
mortal, fast decaying world. 

O for that blessed time when we may hope to 
join him in those regions of everlasting bliss to 
which he has gone before, and led the way for us 
to follow ; to partake with him of those pleasures of 
which he is now partaking, and of those sweets of 



LETTERS. 



xxi 



^hich he is now tasting ; to behold that Lamb of 
}od, whom he is now beholding face to face." 

" O ! it will be joyful 
When we meet to part no more/' 

I know that such times as these more especially 
remind you of that dear one whom we have lost ; 
but then you have the comfort of feeling that he 
has been taken in mercy, and has only preceded 
us to the kingdom of heaven. How much worse 
would it have been if we had felt that he was taken 
in an unprepared hour, when, like some, his mind 
was set on things of this world, and not on things 
above. But now, thank God, we are sure that he 
was ready to die, and though his place is left 
empty to us, it is only for a short time ; soon we 
shall be called to meet him in that land where 
mourning and sorrow shall be no more, and where 
the Lord God shall wipe away tears from off all 
faces." Let us then prepare ourselves for that 
change when this corruption shall put on incor- 
ruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality ;" 
and when our time shall come to deliver our account 
for every talent committed to us. 

Ever your most affectionate and dutiful son. 



xxu 



LETTERS. 



{Aged 13.) 

WooDcoTE House, 

May 26th, 1856. 

My Darling Mother, 

My thoughts have taken an unusually se- 
rious turn from the report that Palmer, of Rugeley, 
is condemned for poisoning ; and I cannot but 
shudder to think what his prospects must be. Here 
is a man guilty of wilfully murdering his own wife, 
his Mother, and two or three others, and who has 
hitherto firmly denied the charge ; but the verdict 
has been returned against him, and I heard on Sa- 
turday that a telegraph message had arrived at 
Reading that afternoon to say that he was to be 
hung this morning. Oh ! what a condition is his ! 
hurried into an awful eternity suddenly, and it is 
to be feared unexpectedly — I assure you that I have 
thought of nothing else hardly since Saturday ; and 
though it is only the report, yet I feel pretty cer- 
tain that it is true. If you have taken an interest 
in the trial, you will, I think, feel so too. Oh ! 
what a warning should we learn from this unhappy 
man's fate to prepare to meet God ! 

God grant him mercy at the eleventh hour ,! 



LETTERS. 



xxiii 



{Aged 14.) 

Eton, 

Feby, 2nd, 1857. 

My Darling Mother, 

I have heard of the sad event in . The 

deaths which occur almost every day to some of 
ones acquaintance, if not of one's immediate 
relatives, seem sent us as special messages from 
heaven to ask why should not you be the next 
summoned ? " Set thine house in order, for thou 
shalt die, and not live." And though our natural 
impulse may be a wish to be taken ourselves, and 
join those dear ones who are gone before, still we 
must be assured that there is some good purpose 
for our being detained on earth, and that we are 
bound, while we are leity to do good in ourgeneration, 
and to wait all the days of our appointed time, 
until our change comes." I shall not fail to think 
of you on the 4th. I fear that day will be very 
painful to you, my precious mother, as recalling the 
unmarred happiness of fifteen years ago ; yet you 
can compare that happiness which was with that 
which will be^ when the Heavenly Bridegroom shall 
come, and you shall be called to meet Him, and 
to go to the marriage. 



Xxiv 



LETTERS. 



{Aged 15.) 

Eton, 

Jany. 23rd, 1858. 

Many, many thanks, my beloved mother, for 
your dear affectionate wishes for yesterday. I al- 
ways feel that a birthday is a particularly solemn 
and important day ; it is, in fact, another " New 
Year's Day." 

God grant that to me it may be the commence- 
ment of a spiritual year, and that it may add more 
to my '^growth in grace." As time passes on I 
cannot but feel that another year of increased 
temptations has opened to me, some of which 
those only in my circumstances and position (as a 
public schoolboy) can know ; but I must trust to 
the same fatherly hand which has hitherto guided 
my steps in life to give me strength to resist all the 
shapes and forms which Satan assumes to creep 
into the hearts of men, and thus I may in the end 
be " more than conqueror." 

I know how much you thought, and prayed for 
me yesterday, my own precious mother ; and I feel 
more and more how grateful I ought to be (and I 
hope I am) for the gift and privilege of such a 



LETTERS. 



mother to love and cherish ; and I am sure that I 
cannot do better than repeat your own words, *'God 
grant that we may always be the comfort to each 
other that we have hitherto been." 

Eton, 

Feby. 1858. 

My tutor has just told me that there is to be a 
confirmation here on March 27th, two days before 
the holidays ; so do you not think that I had better 
take advantage of it, as I may not have another 
chance for so long ? and besides, Easter Sunday 
would be such a nice day for our first communion 
together. I told my tutor that most likely you would 
agree to my earnest ^\'^, and he seemed so pleased ; 
and I know that he will take an interest in pre- 
paring me for that important ceremony ; so if you 
are of my opinion (which I feel sure you will be) 
please enclose a little note to my tutor in your next 
letter to me. It is such a pleasure to me to think 
that I may be confirmed before I see you again. 
God bless you ! 



xxvi 



LETTERS. 



{Aged IS.) 

Eton, Feby. 1858. 

Sunday Evening. 

My dearest Mother, 

There cannot be a more suitable time than 
this to tell you how much I thank you for con- 
senting to my wish of being confirmed. I feel that 
confirmation is in itself a very solemn ofBce, and 
ought not to be entered upon without due consider- 
ation and seriousness. It is, as it were, the door 
which admits one to a closer communion with God 
than was enjoyed previously, as it enables one to 
partake of the body and blood of His Son, and 
thereby to have nearer access to the Creator. It is 
a very great pleasure to me to feel that ere long, by 
God's grace, I may be permitted thus to enter the 
Holy of Holies," and partake of the ^' sacred 
feast which Jesus makes;" and earnestly do I pray 
(and I know, dearest mother, that you will pray for 
me) that I may be enabled diligently to prepare 
myself for the responsible situation, in which I hope 
soon to be, where I shall undertake in my own per- 
son what was once undertaken for me, " to renounce 
the world, the flesh, and the devil, and to continue 



LETTERS. 



XXV ii 



Christ's faithful soldier and servant unto my life's 
end." I cannot be blind to the immense responsi- 
bility of confirmation. It is, in fact, repeating and 
ratifying a covenant with God, and openly declaring 
your intention and determination to serve Him 
truly and when one feels one's entire insufficiency 
to do this of oneself, one must rely more than ever 
on the support of God's Holy Spirit to strengthen 
the natural weakness of our hearts. I am. so glad 
that Easter day will be my first sacrament day, 
and as (D.V.) we shall go home the day after the 
confirmation, you will be with me. Now, God 
bless you, my own precious mother. 

Ever your most loving and dutiful. 

Eton, 

March ^ 1858. 

While I was reading in my Greek Testament 
this afternoon, I was forcibly struck with a passage 
in the last verse of Chap. vii. of Acts, where, after 
speaking of Stc Stephen's intercessory prayer, our 
ve7^sion reads, and when he had said this he fell 
asleep whereas it should be translated (according 
to the hteral meaning of the Greek words) He 



xxviii 



LETTERS. 



was lulled to sleep." I think that you will, like me, 
be struck with the beautiful idea which this word 
conveys of the intense calmness of St. Stephen's 
death, as if, in defiance of the wrath of his perse- 
cutors, and the lingering pain which stoning must 
have caused, the heavenly vision which he saw lulled 
and soothed him into a calm and gentle sleep, 
from which he would awake in the arms of his 
Lord and Master. 



SERMON I. 



Advent, i86i. 

" Awake, O north wind ; and come, thou south ; blow upon 
my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my be- 
loved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits." 

Song of Solo77ion iv. i6. 

NCE more we seem to hear the Church 
on earth lifting up her voice in the sea- 
son of Advent, and calling upon Him 
whom her soul loveth to come and 
manifest Himself in the flesh. Again does she 
seek her Beloved among the ^' shepherds' tents:" 
again is she arraying herself in her bridal robes, and 
going forth to meet her Lord. And the nearer we 
approach to Christmas, the more earnest sounds, or 
ought to sound, her voice : Tell me, O thou whom 
my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou 
makest thy flock to rest at noon;" until, on the 
dawning of the longed-for day, she hears His well- 
known voice of love, and exclaims in the rapturous 
burst of her Christmas song, The voice of my be- 

B 




2 



ADVENT. 



loved ! behold, he cometh leaping upon the moun- 
tains, skipping upon the hills." The winter is 
past, the rain is over and gone ; the flowers appear 
on the earth ; the time of the singing of birds is 
come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our 
land." 

But ere He come it is no less her pleasure than 
her duty to endeavour to prepare herself and the 
hearts of her children for His august presence ; so 
that she may be able to rejoice with exceeding 
great joy," and present her people to Him, the 
yearning "travail of His soul" as a peculiar people, 
a holy nation, a chosen generation." And thus she 
has devoted four solemn weeks to remind us of our 
own duty at the return of another Christmas-tide ; 
and she would have us all gird up our loins, and 
light our lamps, that, when the Bridegroom cometh, 
we may go forth joyfully, and prepared to meet 
Him. 

Let then this preparation of ourselves, for the 
near commemoration of our Master's coming be 
the subject of a few very practical considerations 
which we may well adduce from the language of 
the text. And we observe, that it first treats of the 
means by which the Church would effect this pre- 
paration ; and then contains an earnest invitation 
to her spouse to come, and cheer her by His presence. 

Awake, O north wind^ and come, thou south ; 
blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may 
flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, 
and eat his pleasant fruits." 



ADVENT, 



3 



The Church here, as in many other passages, 
compares the hearts of her children to a garden, 
which it is her interest and desire to get into order 
and full bloom before the coming of her Lord. She 
seems to imply that her garden is well stocked 
with seeds ; that the germs of the future flowers 
have been duly sown ; but that the plants are back- 
ward in coming up ; that the green shoots do not 
shew themselves above ground as soon as she had 
a right to expect. Her spices, she complains, do 
not flow out as freely or as richly as she hoped ; 
and she seems to fear that her beloved will appear 
before her garden is as bright and lovely as she in- 
tended. She therefore calls earnestly on the wind 
to aid her in her trouble : the north wind to " awake,'* 
and strengthen the young plants for the variations 
of the weather ; and the south wind to " come," and 
" blow upon her garden," that by its genial in- 
fluence the tender plants may venture to lift up 
their heads, and in the gentle breath of the early 
spring may burst forth in all their varied loveliness. 
Simple and beautiful and most natural as this pic- 
ture is, it is well adapted to teach us a lesson of 
importance. " Consider the lilies" was the advice 
of Him who " feedeth among the (lilies ;" and we 
may well stop to learn a lesson from the common 
gems of nature which help to make our world so 
richly beautiful, and to see in thefe an image and 
an emblem of ourselves. 

We, as members of the Catholic Church, have 
been, by Holy Baptism, transplanted from the waste 



4 



ADVENT, 



wilderness of sin into the garden of our Lord^s de- 
light. We have each of us been set there in the 
rich and fertilizing soil of grace, watched with care, 
watered with dew from Heaven, tended with even 
a Father's love. But do we grow in grace ? do we 
daily send forth fresh shoots, and put forth fresh 
leaves, and fresh blossoms } or are we but bare and 
barren stems, wreathed with not one verdant leaf, 
crowned with not one opening flower ? Great cause^ 
alas ! has our mother Church to fear that we, her 
children, shall not be worthy of her Spouse when 
He Cometh. Great cause has she to fear that we, 
her chosen plants, shall not be green and flourishing 
when the Master of the garden shall come to receive 
of His fruits. Too many of us are like the thorns 
and briers which only cumber the ground, and fill 
up the place that might be occupied by better and 
worthier trees. Too few are as the choice flowers, 
which repay all the care, and labour, and watchful- 
ness of the gardener by an early and luxurious 
produce. How shall we be meet for the Master's 
presence } How shall we be fit to adorn His garden, 
if we are making no progress from day to day ; no 
spiritual advancement ; no real, vital growth } never 
shooting up higher, never becoming stronger in the 
stem 1 never putting forth one tender bud, nor one 
bright flower } Oh ! we must all pray earnestly for 
the blast of the " north wind" and the breath of the 
" south wind" to blow upon us, and make us more 
fruitful, more useful, more worthy of our high posi- 
tion and privileges. 



ADVENT, 



5 



Wind, we know, is a common scripture metaphor 
of the working of the Holy Spirit in the heart of 
man : " The wind bloweth where it Hsteth, and 
thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell 
whence it cometh, and whither it goeth : so is every- 
one that is born of the Spirit." It is the indwelling 
power and energy of the Spirit that alone can make 
us vigorous and fruitful ; this alone can make us 
growing Christians. First we must ask for the 

north wind;" for the powerful and startling 
working of the Spirit as the convincer of sin : for 
the k^en blast of conviction to blow away all our 
pride, and self-conceit, and independence, and pre- 
sumption ; and leave us exposed to our own sight 
as weak and helpless creatures, unable, even for a 
moment, to stand upright of ourselves or our own 
strength ; ever ready to fall ; ever falling ; and, 
but for God's infinite mercy, ever fallen. There 
must be the power of the cutting wind thoroughly 
to carry away all our dross ; to sift the chaff from 
the wheat, and blow away all the dust and dross 
that still adheres to our corrupt and sinful hearts ; 
till it leaves us bare and naked in our own sight, 
and exposed to the fierce wrath of an offended God. 
And then, when this has been effected, comes in 
the soft and gentle breath of the south wind the 
same Spirit who just now revealed Himself as the 
stern and uncompromising reprover and convincer 
of sin, when He has finished that work of arresting 
the sinner and bringing him to his senses again, 
blows softly upon his wounded and melted heart. 



6 



ADVENT. 



and breathes words of peace and comfort to his 
troubled soul : He whose office it was to reprove 
the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judg- 
ment," came also as the Comforter from heaven, 
who was to bring all the loving words of Christ to 
remembrance, to console the hearts of His bereaved 
apostles. And so does He ever come to the sinner's 
heart ; first to convince him of his sin, his distance 
from grace, to arrest him in his thoughtless career ; 
and then does He come to bind up the heart which 
He has wounded, and to pour the oil of the Gospel 
promises on the troubled waves of the conscience- 
stricken penitent. This is the power, the two-fold 
power, which is needed to make the garden meet 
for the coming of the Beloved : and the twofold 
power of the Spirit we all need to enable us to wel- 
come the Advent of our Redeemer as we ought. 
But have we felt the power .^^ Do we know how 
vile, how sinful we all of us are? Do we feel it? 
Oh ! if we have felt the eonvincing power of the 
Spirit, we must know something of His soothing, 
soft, persuasive power. The winter must give way 
to spring : the north winds cannot always blow : 
and in proportion as the blast of conviction was 
keener, the gentle breathings of blessed assurance 
and peace will be all the more congenial to our 
souls. 

If ever we have felt more than at other times the 
weight and heinousness of our sins ; if ever we have 
seen ourselves in our true light, stained with wilful 
and persisted transgression ; if ever we have been 



ADVENT, 



1 



brought to feel how thoroughly unworthy we are of 
the love and mercy of God, that was the power of 
none other than the Spirit. He quickens ; He 
arouses ; He convinces ; He lays bare the sinner's 
heart, and shows us to ourselves. But then, when 
we have been humbled and bowed down with the 
consciousness of sin ; when we have deeply felt our 
extreme need of pardon, but yet our utter unworthi- 
ness of pardon, then breathes He upon our souls 
the soft breath of heavenly love ; and whispers to 
us of pardon, peace, and glory to come : then, 
when the heart is heavy, are we fanned with gentle 
gales, laden with the spicy fragrance of Gilead's 
balm : then, when sin seems blackest, and hope 
far distant, come the sweet " south winds'' of heaven, 
telling of perfect love and perfect happiness in the 
bright land from whence they blow. 

If ever, in affliction's darkling hour, we have felt 
the special preciousness of Christ to our souls ; if 
ever, in the day of sickness, we have known the 
support of heavenly consolation, and a sympathy 
not of this world, it was then that we have with 
most delight, felt the quickening breath of God's 
own blessed Spirit. But then, remember, every 
blessing brings its own responsibility. And if we 
have been thus favoured ; if we have been thus 
planted deep in God's garden of grace ; if we have 
been exposed to these counter-influences, both of 
which worketh that one and the self-same spirit," 
we must bear in mind that "the manifestation of the 
Spirit is given to every man to profit withal and 



ADVENT, 



then comes the question, Have we profited ? The 
wind has blown upon us : did we gladly and thank- 
fully expose ourselves to its ripening power ? The 
fig-tree in our Lord's parable had felt the north 
winds of many a winter, and the south winds 
of many a spring, and yet it was a barren tree. 
And we know that the doom of barren trees is 
indelibly and unalterably fixed, Cut it down ; 
why cumbereth it the ground?" Many are our 
opportunities now ; but how long they will be ours 
we know not. Our Saviour once said to a tree 
which bore leaves but no fruit, " No man eat fruit 
of thee hereafter for ever." What a lesson is this 
to those who are ever putting off* improvement, who 
are ever just going to amend their ways : some- 
times they are cut off* before they begin : some- 
times, when they are saying, "We will begin to- 
morrow," God says to them, " You shall not begin 
to-morrow," for " this night your souls shall be 
required of you." Oh ! if we have thus been 
habitually putting off* doing good, either to our 
own selves or to others, pray we this night for the 
searching power of the Spirit's north wind " to 
startle us, to awaken us, to frighten us into a sense 
of our folly, our danger : or else we shall never 
know the soothing influences of that other wind, 
the calm and peaceful assurance within our souls 
of pardon now, and acceptance and glory here- 
after. 

But if God has already vouchsafed to lead us to 
seek for reconciliation in the atoning blood of His 



ADVENT. 



9 



Son, joyfully shall we join in that earnest invitation 
which forms the second part of our text, and our 
subject : " Let my beloved come into his garden, 
and eat his pleasant fruits." 

The bride, it would seem, having prayed for the 
strengthening power of the wind " to blow upon 
her garden," and encourage the tender plants to 
bud forth, conscious that without t/ia^ all her care 
and watchfulness would profit nothing, now calls 
upon her spouse to come quickly to her love, and 
partake of the fruits which she had been so pleas- 
ingly engaged in storing up for him. 

Sabbath after Sabbath, throughout the past year, 
has the church been crying out for the genial in- 
fluence of the Spirit : week after week has she taught 
her children to call upon their Heavenly Father, 
and say, "Take not Thy Holy Spirit from us:" and 
now she calls upon her Lord to reveal Himself 
again in the hearts of his people, " God manifest 
in the flesh." Again is the commission of sovereign 
love proclaimed through the vaults of heaven, 
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people." Again does 
the church on earth recognize the bright light in 
the eastern sky, and her walls re-echo with joyful 
hosannas, "Blessed is He that comxCth." 

Her great delight seems to be that her Lord will 
now be able to test, as it were, her love by the gifts 
which she has been treasuring up for Him. She 
asks Him to come and "eat His pleasant fruits," 
the produce of that garden which is His by pos- 
session, and hers by inheritance : that " vineyard 



lO 



ADVENT, 



of the Lord of Hosts," of which she is the steward, 
appointed to train and nourish the young plants 
with a mother's care, till the Lord of the vine- 
yard " shall come to receive of His own. And she 
seems to imply by this, that she would have been 
vexed and disappointed, if, after all her labour, and 
her care, and her attention, her Lord had come and 
not found any fruit in His garden. 

Soon is Christ to come again to His Church : 
not now visibly present in the cradle at Bethlehem, 
but known and felt in the hearts and memories of 
His ransomed people : soon, very soon, will the 
courts of the Lord's house be ringing with the glad 
Christmas note. The birth of Jesus Christ was 
on this wise." The Lord of the vineyard cometh ; 
but He comes to too many as He went up to that 
fig-tree by the way-side, if haply He might find 
fruit thereon." Plenty of leaves were there ; the 
boughs and branches laden with the appearance of 
fertility; but ^'the tree is known by its fruits;" and 
therefore all the leaves in the world could not save 
that tree from the withering blast of the Master's 
curse. 

And can we be contented or satisfied to rest 
quietly and at ease, while this very scene is re- 
peated over the barren figtrees of our hearts ? Can 
we, now that the wheels of Christ's chariot are 
heard once more hastening over the everlasting 
hills, can we stand still, like Moses, and ''see this 
great sight," and not tremble 1 Shall not the end 
of so many of our brethren arrest and alarm us 1 



ADVENT, 



Can we hear of men cut off in the prime of a god- 
less life, going down to a hopeless grave, and not 
ask ourselves how it would have been if we had 
been cut off, and the others spared ? What if Christ 
should come this Christmas-tide, and find no pleasant 
fruits in us ? no spices flowing out ? What if He 
should find us doing nothing for Him ? daily pray- 
ing Thy kingdom come," and yet doing absolutely 
nothing for the extension of that kingdom ? What, 
if He should find us not one step nearer to Heaven 
than we were a year ago ? What, if we are not so 
near as we were then ? Oh ! these are the dark 
shadows which that great and glorious coming event 
casts before it. These are thoughts which we dare 
not despise : voices of the night to which we dare 
not turn a deaf ear. 

And if we are joining in the yearning call of the 
Church for the arrival of her beloved, without 
feeling any personal interest in Christ, or any per- 
sonal love for Christ, how must our consciences con- 
vict us of the grossest hypocrisy in the sight of God. 

Though we cannot now welcome Him as the Gen- 
tiles did, with gold, and frankincense, and myrrh,'' 
surely we may bring some humble offering of love 
and devotion ; some bright flowers of Christian graces 
wherewith to strew His path. Shall we refuse Him 
the frankincense, the free-will offering of a heart 
made subservient in all things to His will } Affec- 
tions cleansed and purified from the contamination 
of the world } a soul made meet to be His temple t 
Shall we deny Him that which in His sight is more 



12 



AD VENT. 



costly than the choicest gold of Ophir, a living faith 
in His nature, His merits, His atonement, and His 
prevailing intercession ? Shall we not present 
our bodies a living sacrifice," more fragrant, teeming 
with a sweeter savour, than the finest myrrh that 
Arabia's fertile gardens can produce ? This, surely, 
is the ''spice" of which the bride speaks here, and 
which she prays may flow out ;" like the incense of 
our faithful and earnest prayers, exuding and burst* 
ing forth almost spontaneously from the healthy 
stem of a believer's soul, dift'using around the 
grateful odours of love and trust and *' peace in 
believing." 

This is the ''pleasant fruit" that will amply repay 
the fostering care of the Church in feeding our 
souls, week by week, with the true, the living bread 
of life. These are the offerings that the Saviour 
loves, and by which He is glorified. Joyfully, if we 
possess any of these, may we invite Him to come 
" in the midst of the years," and " revive His 
work ;" joyfully, when He comes, may we hail 
Him "that is born King of the Jews." 

But humbly and fervently let us pray that we may 
be made each day the special objects of the Spirit's 
power, and " that all things belonging to the Spirit," 
all Christian graces and Christian virtues " may live 
and grow " in us : so shall we be able fully to enter 
into the holy joy and the exultation of this most 
blessed festival. So shall we spend a far happier 
Christmas than the world around us ; and so, when 
the Lord shall come a second time in visible and 



ADVENT, 



13 



awful majesty, shall we be presented as "pleasant 
fruits" to be transplanted from this our temporary 
and uncertain resting-place, into the everlasting 
paradise of our God. 

But, lastly, that our own happy feelings and 
happy associations at this time may not lead us 
entirely to forget those whose Christmas-tide, for 
this year at least, is darkened with the billowing 
clouds of unlooked-for sorrow, pray we for our 
Queen, for her family ; that they, w^ho have so 
lately felt the keen and cutting blast of the chill 
north wind " of trial and tribulation, may even 
now be breathed upon by the gentle " south wind " 
of consolation and support; that He who has 
wounded will vouchsafe to heal ; and that the 
Fathers hand may be faithfully and thankfully 
traced in the dark mysterious labyrinths of His 
own most blessed will. 

Thus will the light be found to shine most brightly 
in a dark place : thus will they, who have, until 
lately, seemed to drink so deeply of the good wine 
of this world's pleasures, prosperity, and success, 
find, that He who mixes every cup, and apportions 
to every one his proper draught, has kept the 
good wine until now." 

One mighty tree has been suddenly and unex- 
pectedly transplanted into that higher garden ; and 
wide does the gap appear where it so lately stood ; 
sad and lonely those clustering plants are drooping 
which, till now, have been protected by its shadow ; 
so spreading were its branches that the face of the 



14 



ADVENT, 



whole garden is changed and altered. A bright 
star of Christian example has set in this lower 
firmament And why ? Surely to show us that 
the highest earthly position and rank is in no way 
incompatible with a holy, a practical life ; that 
royalty itself is not exempt from the common lot 
of man ; that if some of those, who are " clothed in 
purple and fine linen," lift up their eyes in the end- 
less torments of hell ; there may be, there are others 
who strive to live as brilliant lights in the world 
who feel that the higher the hill on which their city 
is set, the more conspicuous is their whole character, 
conduct, and life ; and who are carried at last by holy 
angels into ^' Abraham's bosom," to be Kings and 
Princes unto God " for ever and ever. 



SERMON IL 



St. Thomas's Day, 1862. 

Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have be- 
lieved." — Johnly.^._ 29, 

HERE IS something significant in the 
fact that St. Thomas's Day falls, not, 
as we might have expected, within a 
few days of Easter^ but within four days 
of the Christmas anniversary. Coming, as he does, 
so prominently forward in the narrative of the cir- 
cumstances connected with our Lord's resurrection, 
we might have looked for his festival near the 
time when we specially commemorate that resur- 
rection ; instead of which we are ordered to keep 
holy a day in the season of Advent in remembrance 
of him. And beneath what seems at first sight a 
strange appointment, there lies a deep lesson of 
gravest moment. Advent is a season of preparative 
contemplation ; a time when the church stands on 
her watch-tower ready to welcome her new-born 
Lord : a time of trimming of lamps, and girding of 
loins, that she may go forth joyfully to meet God 
manifest in the flesh." And so it is a time when 
each one should look into the dark chambers of his 




i6 



ST. THOMAS'S DA V. 



heart, and see whether ke is ready to receive the 
new-born Saviour, and to welcome Him again with 
a holy Christmas welcome. And one very impor- 
tant part of this search and self-investigation is the 
inquiry, what is my own individual notio7i of this 
Redeemer whom I profess to know and to serve ? 
The importance of such a question is clear from 
our Lord Himself suggesting it to His own apos- 
tles ; "Whom do men say that I am?" A 
scriptural recognition of the true character of the 
Christ is the surest foundation of a saving faith. 
And the history of the doubt and hesitation of one 
who lived so near to Christ as Saint Thomas stands 
forth as a powerful warning and help to us, " who 
have not seen," but still profess to believe in the 
Incarnate God. 

In order that we may have a more definite idea of 
the apostle's fault, we will compare his case with that 
of another faithful follower of the Lord, Mary Mag- 
dalene. To both of them their Master appeared after 
He had risen ; but to Mary He said, " Touch me 
not'^' while He specially invited and commanded 
Saint Thomas to touch Him ; Reach hither thy 
finger, and behold my hands ; and reach hither thy 
hand, and thrust it into my side." How, then, are 
we to account for this apparent inconsistency } The 
fact is, that both persons recognized and acknow- 
ledged their risen Lord ; but only in a partial and 
one-sided way. Mary, when He appeared to her 
in the garden of the sepulchre, at first took him for 
the gardener ; and when He had convinced her by 



ST. THOMAS'S DAY, 17 

pronouncing her name, in the first transport of her 
joy she exclaimed Rabboni ! " (which is to say, 
'^Master") ; and, no doubt, fell down in joyous 
adoration before Him ; and, as the eastern custom 
was, would have held His sacred feet, lest He 
should again slip out of her sight. At all events, 
her word of greeting was Master." She saw in Him 
the same 3fan whom she had before been wont to 
call her Master." She saw in Him that, and that 
only, which she had seen before his death. In a 
word, she recognised Him only in His humanity. So 
great was her delight at the recovery of her loved 
Master that she thought not of the change that had 
taken place ; thought not how or why it was that 
He who had been buried now stood before her ; 
she thought not of the Deity hitherto so often dor- 
mant within Him, but now majestically predomi- 
nant ; she saw before her Him for whom she had 
sorrowed as without hope, and she would fain have 
detained Him with her for ever. To correct her 
error, Jesus says, "Touch me not!" Handle not 
my glorified body with a merely carnal touch. 
Touch me not now as if I were but a man ; but 
when I am ascended to the right hand .of the 
Father, then, and then only, touch me by faith and 
love ; the co-equal Son of the Infinite God. 

Saint Thomas erred on the opposite side. When 
the other Apostles told him that they had " seen 
the Lord," he refused to believe unless he had 
ocular and tangible proof of the fact. He did not 
deny that Christ was risen, but he would not be- 

c 



i8 



ST. THOMAS'S DAY. 



lieve that the very Body which had been crucified 
and buried was again restored to hfe. He does not 
ask for proof of the fact of the resurrection: he be- 
lieves that : but he cannot beheve that the original 
human Body is risen as perfectly human as before 
its death. Probably he fancied that the appearance 
of the Lord to his brother Apostles was a spiritual 
appearance ; only a similitude of His form ; not an 
actual corporeal presence ; and so he refuses to be- 
lieve in the humanity of the risen Body, though he 
does not deny that as God and not man, Christ 
may have appeared. His fault, then, was just the 
reverse of that of Mary Magdalene. She made too 
much of her Lord's humanity ; he lost sight of it 
altogether. His reason failed, and therefore his 
faith failed too. But in tenderness to His doubting 
Apostle the loving Jesus vouchsafes the proofs 
which he demanded ; and He who had said eight 
days before to one disciple, Touch me not^' invites 
another to come near and touch Him. And this is 
still further brought out in the terms in which the 
two address their risen Lord. Mary, as we have 
seen, exclaimed at once " Rabboni ; " accosting 
Him by the familiar name she had been accustomed 
to apply to her Master, which was after all but an 
earthly title ; Saint Thomas as soon as he has 
proved to his own satisfaction the true humanity 
and identity of his Lord, exclaims, " My Lord and 
my God!' Thus he recognises both natures united 
in Christ. Before he had refused to believe that 
the other Apostles had seen the Lord; now he vo- 



ST. THOMAS'S DAY. 



19 



luntarily accosts his Master by that very title, and 
thus acknowledges that the same Jesus who was 
crucified had indeed risen again, and by that resur- 
rection had proved Himself to be Very God. 

Saint Thomas erred, then, because he walked 
not by faith but by sight He had not seen; and 
therefore he would not believe ; his faith was not 
strong enough to stand when once his reason 
gave way. And herein he is set forth to its — to 
the church in every age — as a striking example 
and warning. With regard to the whole chain of 
circumstances connected with our Lord's life we 
stand on the same footing as Saint Thomas did in 
respect of one event. We were not present when 
Jesus came. We were not there in those outlying 
pastures of Judea when the angelic light dispersed 
the shades of night, and the heavenly messenger 
sent the Jewish shepherds to adore their King. 
We have seen no bright eastern star leading us, as 
the magi of old, to the threshold of that stable 
where lay the infant Jesus. We stood not by the 
atoning cross when " there was darkness over all 
the land;" nor gazed affrighted into the depths of 
the empty tomb. And yet we all alike profess a 
firm and sure faith in Jesus Christ, God's only be- 
gotten Son, our Lord. But if we were asked the 
simple question, "Why do you believe in Jesus .-^'^ 
perhaps we might hesitate at the answer. We feel 
that we have good a reason in ourselves (God forbid 
that it should be otherwise) ; but that is not enough : 
St. Peter says that we must be " ready always to 



20 



ST. THOMAS'S DAY, 



give an answer to every man that asketh us a reason 
of the hope that is in us." It may be that we have 
never seriously asked ourselves the question ; or if 
we have, we have not felt able to express to our 
own satisfaction the true reason. And if sometimes 
we have experienced a longing for the Saviour's 
presence ; and sighed over our own coldness and 
indifference to Him ; and wished that we could 
think of His love, and dwell upon the thought with 
the same comfort and delight that true believers 
find in the contemplation ; it is likely that one 
thing, at least, that prevents us is this, that we 
have never taken pains to as k ourselves what 
our mental notio7t of our Master, in His charac- 
ter and office, really is. Such an inquiry we 
should make specially our own now ; if we have 
already asked the question, Christmas bids us 
repeat it ; if we have not asked it before, Christmas 
bids us ask it now. To all of us who believe in an 
unseen Saviour, Christmas comes with the solemn 
query, ^' What think ye of Christ } " 

If there were no such festival in the calendar as 
Christmas, men might have some excuse for being 
perplexed and baffled at the contemplation of the 
infinite God. But Christmas speaks to us of that 
which is as a ladder to our feeble faith ; it tells us 
of an incarnate God. Christ was made man in 
order that His people might know Him as a man ; 
that in all their human occupations, and human 
efforts, and human anxieties they might think of 
Him as having trode the very same path before 



ST, THOMAS'S DAY. 



21 



them. But the question just now is not so much 
wAat we think of Christ as zukj/ we think of Him at 
all ; why we believe in Him ; why we call Him our 
Saviour, our Deliverer, our Mediator, and our Judge. 
Let those who are at a loss for a clear and rational 
answer to such questions take the Bible into their 
hands. Let them trace through the whole course 
of Old Testament history, and psalmody, and pro- 
phecy ; let them recognize the mighty fact that 
each and every event in that mysterious chain of 
providential agency points onwards into the dark 
vista of futurity, and marks out some one of the 
sons of men as its antitype, its fulfilment, and its 
end : let them weigh well the character, as there 
described, of this expected potentate : and then 
let them turn to the pages of the Gospel, and com- 
pare the vast body of prophecy, the whole array of 
Mosaic ceremonial, with ''the Man Christ Jesus 
and let them say, with all the light of reason and 
subtle scrutiny to boot, if He is not the Man '* of 
whom Moses, in the law and the prophets, did 
write." Or else let them tell us who is. Or again, 
to take the simple history of the facts. We have 
before us a carpenter's son, born in a stable at 
Bethlehem, the son of poor parents ; and yet this 
humble infant is visited by men from the east, 
renowned for their learning, who come all the way 
from Arabia or Persia, simply because they have 
seen a peculiar star in the heavens ; and moreover 
they make to this infant the most costly presents, 
and fall down, and do Him homage. We have this 



22 



ST. THOMAS'S DAY. 



same child in after life choosing out twelve men, 
chiefly from the lower ranks of life, and sending 
them forth to preach of His Own coming. We 
find mighty and marvellous works performed by 
the touch, the voice, of this same Galilaean peasant. 
We find Him at last arraigned, condemned, and 
crucified. We find His followers circulating strange 
rumours of a resurrection, and declaring that their 
buried Master lived and communed with them as 
before. We find them preaching throughout all 
the world this very doctrine, undaunted by perse- 
cution, hardship, and privation, amongst the proud 
sages of the Grecian capital, and the narrow-minded 
sectarians of the Jews : nay, more, we find them 
joyfully hailing the prospect of a cruel death, 
willingly laying down their lives in support of their 
Master's cause. Most truly has it been said, if 
with all this mass of evidence before us, we still 
can doubt that the Christ of the New Testament 
is in very deed the Messiah of the Old, we must be 
constrained to believe a far greater miracle, namely 
that all this was the natural result of a successful 
imposture. 

These are only two out of the many evidences 
which can be adduced to support a Christian's faith 
in a Divine Saviour. Many persons would say 
such questionings are best let alone : they will tell 
us that these subtle reasonings (not that they 
deserve the name) are all very well for the Priest- 
hood, and the learned in the congregation ; but 
that they do not concern the generality of the 



ST. THOMAS'S DAY, 



23 



people, to whom an inward consciousness of a firm 
faith and pure love is better than all the discussions 
about the ground on which their faith is rested. 
Such is not the scriptural view ; such, we may be 
sure, is not a sound view. If such matters prove 
dull and uninteresting, it will generally be found 
that there is no real interest in the things w^hich 
concern the soul. If a man is satisfied that his 
faith is stedfast, although he has never taken the 
trouble to ascertain the material and quality of its 
foundation, it is high time for him to ask if it be 
indeed a vital faith, a part, as it were, of his own 
spiritual life, or merely a formal acquiescence in 
received and acknowledged truths. 

Let us beware of thinking that these are no 
questions for us. We, as baptized Christians, are 
individual members of the church of Christ : that 
church has ever, by divine mercy, been preserved : 
and its preservation rests on a sure word of pro- 
mise, "The gates of hell shall not prevail against 
it." But enemies abound ; adversaries without, false 
friends within. At the present day, perhaps, she 
suffers chiefly from the latter. Morbid minds would 
tell us that infidelity is fast gaining ground, and 
undermining the foundations of our Zion ; but we 
will not heed them. We will gird up our loins, and 
trim our lamps : we will not shut our eyes to the 
too prevalent poison which Satan is trying to infuse 
into the minds of rich and poor alike ; but we will 
pray that our faith may be firm and unshaken : 
nay, more, we will ask the great Mediator to plead 



24 



ST, THOMAS'S DA K 



for us as He did for St. Peter of old, when He 
said, " I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail 
not." 

Christ is to us an unseen Saviour. But yet, 
perhaps, we can tell of holy moments of prayer and 
contemplation when we have seemed to behold 
Him before our eyes, hanging on the awful cross, 
or enthroned at the Father's right-hand. Now that 
He is ascended, we may touch Him ; touch Him by 
faith, as the sick woman in the gospel ; touch Him 
in love, as did Mary Magdalene ; touch Him with 
the double touch of faith and love in that most 
Holy Communion, where we may not only touch 
Him, but spiritually receive Him. 

Pray we that all lurking doubts may be removed 
by the enlightening Spirit ; that we may have a 
fuller and clearer appreciation of our adored Re- 
deemer; that we may "know Him, and" (as St 
Paul says) "the power of His resurrection," and 
believe in Him, and follow Him, and love Him ; 
that when faith shall at length be absorbed in sight, 
and the gloomy shades of earth dispersed by the 
full revelation of the Triune God, ours may be the 
blessing of those faithful servants who have not 
seen and yet have believed. 



SERMON III. 



The close of the year i860. 

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall 
not be clear, nor dark : but it shall be one day, which shall 
be known to the Lord, not day, nor night : but it shall come 
to pass, that at evening time it shall be light. — Zechariah 
xiv. 6, 7. 



of Europe for a while convulsed with war ; has 
seen one of the greatest heroes of our day strug- 
gling valiantly for the liberties of a tyrannized 
people ; has seen, too, the pillar of heresy trem- 
bHng to its very foundation, the mighty antichrist 
on the verge of ruin, and yet all the while thinking 
that he stood on a sure support ; has seen the 
church of Christ rent asunder with false doctrines 
and a spirit of unauthorized innovation ; and yet, in 
the midst of all this the cross of atonement, riding 
triumphantly on the broad billows of opposition, 
and in spite of the unbelief of the one party, and 
the counter-exertions of the other, daily enlisting 
fresh armies of awakened and penitent souls under 




HE last Sabbath-Day of a very remark- 
able year. A year which has witnessed 
the most striking events both in church 
and state ; which has seen the powers 



26 THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR. 



her banners, " daily adding to the church such as 
should be saved." 

But without entering on a review of political 
questions, or marring the solemnity of this quickly 
fading year with worldly discussion and unprofit- 
able argument, let us rather enquire into the state 
of the church militant at this time, and point 
exultingly to the conquests which the name of 
Jesus has achieved in the world ; and we shall find 
that this year will afford us a very striking illustra- 
tion of the prophetic announcement which Zechariah 
made more than two thousand years ago. 

The prophecy in the text draws a remarkable 
picture of the present condition of the church 
militant ; and it also bears a marked allusion to 
the glorious jubilee of grace, when the sorrows of 
the warrior shall be merged in the triumph of the 
conqueror, and the saints of Jesus shall once more 
welcome their Saviour in the earth, and with Him 
participate in the unspeakable fruition of the mil- 
lennial rest. 

And, first of all, we notice the time spoken of. 
" It shall come to pass in that day." This is an 
expression which is constantly used in the Old 
Testament Scriptures of the coming reign of the 
Messiah. It is that day of grace which should be 
different from all previous days. It was pointed to 
as a remarkable day, as the dawning Sabbath of 
the world. It was the notable day when the 
utterances of the Jewish prophets should be ac- 
complished ; when the emblematic ritual of the 



THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR, 27 



ceremonial law should be obliterated by the blood 
of reconciliation ; and the expectant world should 
behold at last the looked for Star of Jacob, who 
should rule in truth and righteousness, and wield 
the sceptre of Israel, and restore again the kingdom 
to the sons of the patriarchs. 

And since this expression referred primarily to 
the dawn of the Gospel-day, the rising of " the 
Sun of Righteousness," it thence is used also in 
allusion to the kingdom which was from that time 
established on earth, the kingdom of covenant grace ; 
and to those who constituted and composed this 
kingdom, namely, the visible church of Christ. By 
these words, then, we are taught at what period we 
are to look for a fulfilment of the prophecy ; it will 
be during the existence of the church ; that is to 
say, during the interval of time that should elapse 
between the establishment and the consummation of 
the church ; in other words, between Christ's 
advent of humiliation^ and His advent of glory. 
And more than this ; from what follows, it seems 
that the prophet spoke of the latter days of the 
church ; of the years which should precede the 
termination of her warfare and the commencement 
of her exaltation. The peculiar condition of the 
church at that time seems to be set forth as an 
intimation of the approach of the final translation 
from earth to heaven, the wondrous change and 
transformation of the earthly into the glorified 
image of the Redeemer. 

Bearing, therefore, these considerations in mind/ 



28 THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR, 



we pass on to notice in the second place the pecu- 
liar state or condition of the church as she is here 
brought before us. It is a state of twilight, " The 
light shall not be clear, nor dark." The light, that 
is, of God's providence and dealings with man ; 
that light of grace which seems so specially to keep 
up the link between heaven and earth ; which seems 
so strikingly to remind man of the constant presence 
of his Maker ; that light is to be neither clear nor 
dark. God's dealings with His people are neither 
to be totally revealed — their inner objects and pur- 
poses laid bare — the why and the wherefore fully 
explained ; nor are they to be so obscure that the 
believer will be unable even by faith to penetrate 
the outer veil, or to recognize the hand of his God 
in the midst of the bitterest dispensation. It was 
to be a time, in fact, when on the one hand, the 
church of Christ should witness a display of God's 
providence in a way that she could understand ; 
that is, in accordance with the usual comvsq of His 
dealings ; and yet, on the other hand, should be 
perplexed at what might seein to be contrary work- 
ings, unexpected^ and incomprehensible dealings ; 
when God should seem, as it were, to be pursuing 
a strange, unwonted syste7n with regard to His 
church, working by strange means, and apparently 
aiming at strange results : a time when the believer 
could not fail to perceive God's intervention, but yet 
should wonder at the manner in which it was exerted, 
or the end which was to be gained : a time when 
the full light of grace should seem to be withdrawn 



THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR. 29 



for a while ; and yet, though hidden by a cloud, 
the Christian would know and feel that it was still 
shining in the clear blue sky of redemption, work- 
ing its own way, accomplishing its own ends, 
though man might not be permitted to perceive 
them. In the naUtral world, a day of neither light 
nor darkness can only be caused by an eclipse of 
the sun ; and so too in the spiritual world, in the 
hidden life of the Christian, this twilight state 
seems to signify an apparent withdrawal of the 
immediate operation of God's dealings. 

And is it not, we ask, possible ; is it not obviousy 
to find in the present condition of the church, a 
close resemblance to this prophetic picture } God 
forbid that we should dare to pronounce His pro- 
vidence withholden or suspended ; but if we con- 
sider for a moment what is the general state of that 
church, in which, as baptized Christians, we ought 
to feel a lively interest ; we shall perceive that God 
is now dealing in a peculiar manner, and yet that 
His hand and His wisdom may still be unmistake- 
ably traced. In the church of Christ at the pre- 
sent day the light is not clear, nor dark." There 
is light enough to show that the Most High is 
working wondrously and gloriously in augmenting 
the number of His elect ; that now, in the midst " 
— it may be the end — " of the years," He is re- 
viving His work of grace and adoption : there is 
light enough for us to see multitudes being won 
over to the Lord's side, some saved from the dark 
sea of heathendom, and others plucked as brands 



30 THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR. 



from the burning, out of the fatal doctrines of 
Romish heresy ; Hght enough for the behever to 
behold the ripe harvest which is being gathered in 
from the vast mission-fields of distant lands, and 
the nearer scenes of English heathendom and Eng- 
lish misery ; and then to exclaim in joyful gratitude, 
This hath God done," when he perceives that it is 
His work : and yet while he rejoices in his heart 
at the light of grace which meets his eye, he feels 
at the same time that it is still not clear he 
looks again, and sees the standard of infidelity 
trying hard to uprear its deadly rule in the very 
church of the cross : he sees a poisonous array of 
false and deceiving doctrines stealthily insinuating 
themselves into the fold of Christ ; the very minis- 
ters of the sanctuary infusing here and there the 
baneful drugs of human wisdom into the teaching 
of the lively oracles of God ;" and conspiring to 
exalt the importance of a '^form of godliness," 
whilst they virtually deny *'the power thereof he 
sees the shores of Christian England defiled by the 
legates of Papacy ; " the mark of the beast " up- 
reared in the same cities as the temples of the 
living God the bishops of Rome planting their 
sees in English soil ; and antichrist straining every 
nerve to regain the influence he once enjoyed in 
Britain. The believer sees all this, the counsels of 
Satan apparently flourishing ; and he asks, in sud- 
den amazement, " Lord, how long ?" he looks for 
the overwhelming stroke of just indignation, but it 
comes not : he looks for the fiery brimstone which 



THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR. 



31 



overthrew the cities of the plain, to dash down the 
proud citadels of infidelity, but still the Lord seems 
to tarry ; and his very soul is almost tempted to 
exclaim " My God ! my God ! why hast thou for- 
saken me?" '^Oh, deliver not the soul of thy turtle- 
dove unto the multitude of the wicked ''give not 
thine heritage to reproach that the heathen should 
rule over them." But so it is. God moves in a 
mysterious way ; and yet the apparent withdrawal 
of His countervailing agency now when it seems 
most needed, may be intended to act upon its as it 
did of old on the first followers of Jesus, when He 
fell asleep in the boat ; Why are ye so fearful, O 
ye of little faith .^" is still the message which His 
Spirit brings to the blind and grovelling soul even 
of regenerate men. It is not for us to speculate on 
the reasons on which God works ; it is not for us to 
be always inquiring, '' When will the partial dark- 
ness be past, and perfect day dawn upon the 
church.^" Rather let us bless God that we have 
so much *' light" vouchsafed to us ; that we are 
enabled to trace the energetic operations of His 
Spirit in all quarters of the world ; and to recog- 
nize the display of His power and His love in the 
enlargement of His church and the promotion of 
His Son's religion among men. And though the 
brightness of His providence, and the clearness of 
His dealings with His people, be for a while partially 
dimmed, let us rest assured that even this apparent 
apathy is the result of infinite, incalculable wisdom ; 
and that though for a time " the enemies of the 



32 THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR, 



cross of Christ/' may seem to be encroaching on 
holy ground, still He will in His own good time pour 
forth the fury of His wrath and indignation ; for 
He hath said Vengeance is mine ; I will repay." 
God's ways have ever been inscrutable ; and 
therefore we need not wonder if He sees fit just 
now to clothe Himself for awhile in a ^'pavilion 
round about Him with dark water, and thick clouds 
to cover Him." It is not for us to be perplexed if 
the bright halo of brilliancy and glory be for a mo- 
ment blunted by a passing cloud, which only hides, 
and does not weaken the power of the sunbeam. 
No cloud so dense as to blot out the light of day ; 
no providential dealing so obscure but that the be- 
liever may recognise the " silver lining" which illu- 
mines even the darkest cloud. And though to the 
church of Christ the light may not be clear," still 
there is the blessed alternative in the prophecy that 
it shall not be " darky Clear" God's providence 
may not be ; but dark " it shall not be. And 
who can look around him now, and scrutinize, nay, 
glance at, the teeming " signs of the times," and 
not recognize the hand of victorious Omnipotence 
ruling all, and guiding all, and causing all to issue 
in the glory of the eternal Godhead ? 

Twelve months ago — when the year which has 
now almost run its course had but just begun — - 
every one, of almost every denomination and 
opinion, was full of the awakening and reviving 
work of grace which had lately sprung up in Ire- 
land. Many were the prophecies then hazarded by 



THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR. 33 

Churchman and Dissenter, by the Christian and the 
Atheist, as to what would be the result of all that 
revival in a year's time. Now, what has been, what 
is, the result ? Then the daily journals were filled 
with astounding accounts of unnatural and frenzied 
awakening : volumes upon volumes on the revival- 
work were published ; and everywhere, in every 
society, among almost every class, this was the 
leading topic of the day. Now, we hardly hear the 
word in daily intercourse ; the books have been 
read and laid aside ; and the greater part believe 
that it has all blown over, and are looking out for 
something equally exciting to stimulate their minds, 
and furnish them with topics of general interest. But 
thank God, all this has not blown over. True that 
we hear much less of it than at first ; but the very 
fact that this is the case gives us a blessed assurance 
that the work of grace is going steadily on. There 
is no outward excitement ; none of those hysterical 
effects which made such a stir at first ; and there- 
fore the world cares not for the work. But the Holy 
Spirit, we believe, does still care for it ; and He is 
still calmly and gently winning souls to Christ, and 
without all that violence, which at first the kingdom 
of heaven appeared to suffer. He is now converting 
lost souls by the good?tesSy rather than the judgments 
of God ; and leading men to repentance by the 
gentleness of Christ's love, rather than the terrors 
of His indignation. Yes, He is there still, shedding 
a holy, heavenly radiance over many a contrite 
heart, and bringing home many a wandering sheep 

D 



34 THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR. 



to the fold of his Saviour's bosom. Here, then, is 
a counter-tendency to be observed* On the one 
hand, the myrmidons of the Papacy seem to be 
stealthily gaining ground on jE/^^/Zj-^ soil, where 
through so many ages Protestantism has shone 
with its brightest lustre ; but then, lest we should 
be tempted to grow doubtful and mistrusting, we 
see oa the other hand, that the church of the 
atonementis rapidly advancing over the wilds and 
wastes of Ireland^ which has been hitherto one of 
the foreign strongholds of the i?<?M^;^ heresy, and is 
dethroning proud antichrist from his odious reign, 
and silently, but steadily, opening the eyes of his 
votaries to the damnable^ errors which he loves to 
infuse into their souls, and by which he tries to 
poison that which might be, and was intended to 
be, *'the temple of the living God." And then 
again, there is another point which has created a 
great deal of public interest during the last six 
months — the persecutions, to which the Christians 
have been exposed in Syria. In the very countries 
where the Gospel message was first proclaimed ; in 
the very countries where the Saviour of sinners 
lived and preached, there His people have been 
cruelly massacred. And it is a curious fact that 
this persecution has been the hottest in and about 
that very town against which Saul of Tarsus was 
so bitterly exasperated, and to which he was jour- 
neying, armed with the fierce authority of the 
jealous priests, when he was arrested and awakened. 
In Damascus, especially, and its neighbourhood. 



THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR. 



have the Christians suffered most : some put to the 
sword with barbarity almost emulating the ever- 
lasting stain which has so indelibly branded the 
names of Lucknow and Cawnpore with an unprece- 
dented notoriety ; and others obliged to fly to the 
mountains for safety, and there in holes and caves 
of the rocks to seek a hiding-place and a covert 
until this tyranny was overpast. When we look 
hither, then, and find that the Almighty is suffering 
another mighty, another waning power to rise up 
against His people, we feel again that the light of 
His providence is not clear," but is there not a 
counterbalancing work going on in this case also ? 
We have seen how that at home the " light is not 
clear nor dark and can we not observe the same 
feature abroad as well? Is it not partially clear" as 
well as partially ^Mark?" What is the record of 
our missionary labour, our evangelizing efforts in 
foreign lands ? What is the testimony of a pro- 
pagated gospel, a preached redemption, an esta- 
blished religion in heathen isles ? What, but that 
God is working mightily in desert soils, breaking 
up the fallow ground, and shedding the light of 
His own most precious truth in many a believing 
heart ? Oh ! well may we thank God that we have 
such assuring testimony ; well may we thank Him 
that while He has seemingly shrouded His foot- 
steps in twilight and mystery to prove the reality of 
our faith, still He has given us so many proofs of 
the energetic manifestation of His power ; and 
though we see Him not, though we cannot read 



36 THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR. 



His dealings of wisdom and love, still we know, we 
feel, that he is within us and around us, working on 
the hearts of our brethren all over the world (and, 
we hope, working on our own hearts), dimly seen 
but yet seen and known in all and each of His dis- 
pensations. 

Thus, then, we have briefly noticed a few of the 
most leading circumstances which tend, on the one 
hand to darken, and on the other to make still 
brighter, that light of providence and grace, which 
is the lantern of the believer's feet, as he walks 
through the scenes and conditions of life. And we 
have thus endeavoured to recognize in the present 
state of the holy catholic church a fulfilment of 
the prophetic intimation in the text. So far we have 
traced an analogy between the prophecy and the 
church militant : we have now to make it good in 
respect to the higher and more glorious fellowship 
of the church triumphant 

" It shall be one day, which shall be known to the 
Lord, not day, nor night ; but it shall come to pass, 
that at evening time it shall be light." On one of 
these days of twilight dispensations, then, we learn 
that all the previous mystery and perplexity of 
God's dealings with His church will be absorbed 
and forgotten in a flood of radiant light ; that, just 
as the sun after a dark and cloudy day sometimes 
at his setting lights up the western sky with a sud- 
den burst of mellow brilliancy, so the darkling day 
of sin and sorrow, opposition and vexation, will ter- 
minate with a bright streak of soft evening light. 



THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR, 37 



casting its gentle effulgence over the everlasting 
hills, while the countless towers of the heavenly- 
Jerusalem shall reflect and enhance its rays. And 
from the fact that this evening light is represented 
as bursting forth on one of these days of twilight, I 
think we may infer that the prophecy contains an 
intimation that the peculiar state of the church 
militant which we have just investigated will be a 
sign of the approaching consummation when the 
sorrows and labours of time will be merged in the 
blissful fruition and Sabbath rest of eternity. 

It has been suggested from various and striking 
coincidences that we are nearing the close of the 
present creation ; that this world, with all that it 
contains, will soon be annihilated and " burnt up 
with fire and it may be so : this prophecy seems to 
confirm the suggestion ; but without discussing the 
probable time of the church's jubilee, let us rather 
consider, in conclusion, the nature and effect of it. 

Long has the church of Christ battled with the 
enemies of her salvation ; long and weary has the 
contest been between the Spirit and the flesh ; but now 
the believer is invited to look upwards, and watch 
for the radiance in the western sky. The conflict 
over — the victory won — and then a hallowed flood 
of "evening'* light. This is one of those exqui- 
sitely sublime metaphors which completely baffle 
description and comment ; one of those magic 
touches which here and there set off the word 
of God with a charm which speaks to one's very 
soul, and seems in spite of oneself to elevate the 



38 THE CLOSE OE THE YEAR. 

tone of one's mind and thoughts. To some these 
words may bring less beauty than to others ; but 
there is something in the very simpHcity, and yet 
subhmity, of the metaphor, which speaks to every 
soul of the soft radiance of the kingdom of Christ. 
And this holy light will be to the faithful the long 
looked for "sign of the Son of Man;'' the sign of 
a finished strife, a purchased throne. To those 
who for many years have bravely borne the victim's 
cross, the evening light will proclaim the nearness 
of the victor's crown. The holy Jesus once more 
borne earthwards on wings of love ; coming " a se- 
cond time, without sin, unto salvation returning 
to gather His saints around Him while the world 
sinks deep into the dark ocean of oblivion, and then 
to waft them upwards with Himself to the " apoca- 
lypse of glory " which awaits them. 

And yet, what will this light be to the sinner, the 
unbeliever — " the alien from the commonwealth of 
Israel V What, but darkness such as was the miurky 
gloom that wrapt itself around the unrelenting Pha- 
raoh's court — a darkness that may be feltf Felt, 
as the sign of the advent of the judge ; felt, as the 
scorching heat of the furnace seven times heated ; 
felt, as the herald of eternal doom. " To the one, 
the savour of death unto death ; and to the other 
the savour of life unto life." 

Oh ! be it ours to dwell often upon our Lord's 
advent of exaltation, and beneath the shadow of 
the cross to prepare for our great and final change. 
Think of the unspeakable glories of that advent ; 



THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR. 39 



not what we lately celebrated, the advent of humi- 
liation ; not the advent of the Man ; but the second 
coming of the co-equal and co-eternal God, the 
coming of " the Lord from heaven." And when He 
shall come, may we be there to welcome our exalted 
Saviour, and in the company of the attendant Che- 
rubim to sound throughout the earth the threefold 
note of praise and triumph. Holy, Holy, Holy, 
Lord God Almighty !" And whether we be in the 
body, or out of the body, when He shall appear ; 
whether in the flesh we shall be permitted to behold 
His glory, or whether our graves be first tinged 
with the glowing light of the millennial sun, what 
shall it signify, so long as we are prepared to meet 
our God 'i 

It behoves us all to review in thought the waning 
year, and then to look forward to the untried scenes 
of trial and temptation through which we must 
have to pass ; not for the sake of calculating upon 
them, for ''sufficient unto the day is the evil 
thereof but that our consciences may more truly 
reply to the searching question, '' Whither goest 
thou V and thatour souls may arm themselves with 
" the whole armour of God, and set out in prayer 
and faith on another stage of their militant career. 
And thus when at last we hear the noise of the 
chariot wheels ; when at last the church of Christ 
shall hail her Saviour and her Prince ; then all the 
sorrows and the woes of time will be drowned in 
the sudden reaction of eternity ; then *' the Lord 
God will wipe away tears from off* all faces then 



40 



THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR, 



**the cup of trembling " will be changed for the 
cup of a complete and consummated salvation ; 
then, while the shadows of eternal night are falling 
on a perishing world, and shutting out for ever the 
temptations and crosses of life, to us " at evening 
time it shall be light/' 



SERMON IV. 



New Year's Day, 1859. 



" Let us get up early to the vineyards ; let us see if the vine 
flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pome- 
granates bud forth : there will I give thee my loves." 

Song of Solomon vii. 1 2. 



meaning conveyed, the Song of Solomon presents 
scarcely anything but abstruse and unintelligible 
mystery and darkness of speech. And this is na- 
tural, because such a man neither desires nor cares 
to dig below the surface ; he reads the actual words, 
and never considers for a moment what they mean ; 
and then gets up and goes away, quieting his con- 
science by the thought that he has fulfilled at least 
one important branch of the Christian's duty, and 
has made a point of daily reading some portion 
of God's holy word. But the careful, attentive 
peruser of Divine revelation ; the man who sounds 
the well of truth and comfort deeply and hopefully ; 
who, while his bodily eyes wander over the sacred 
words outwardly, endeavours to grasp at the deep 




) a casual and thoughtless reader, — to 
one, that is, who is satisfied with merely 
skimming over the surface, without en- 
deavouring or caring to imbibe the 



42 



NEW YEAR'S DAY. 



meaning therein contained with the eye of his 
mind inwardly ; such a man cannot fail to be struck 
with the inexhaustible mine of precious truth, which 
this song of songs presents to us. 

The language, I allow, is strange and peculiar ; 
but what a wondrous vein of poetry is there ! the 
phrases, the metaphors, and expressions too are 
peculiar to the book, but we should have to look a 
long way before we could find expressions more 
striking, similes more appropriate, metaphors more 
true than we have here. And if any one object 
that the language is too familiar, let him remember 
the poetical character of the book, and the exag- 
geration of expression which genuine poetry always 
admits. 

The book is of itself an allegory, representing the 
relationship and the demeanour of the church on 
earth to her heavenly Lord and Bridegroom. She 
is brought before us in all the different circum- 
stances of her chequered existence ; in sorrow and 
in joy, in affliction and prosperity, the picture is 
alike true. We see her oppressed and well-nigh 
overcome by the power of temptation ; we see her 
bowed down to the dust by trial and perplexity ; 
and we see her, too, in the sunshine of her life 
rejoicing and exulting in the love and presence of 
her Beloved. Let us, then, take one single verse, 
and see whether we may not derive, even from 
each word a lesson of practical importance — 2. lesson 
peculiarly suited to this present time, the opening 
of a new year. And may God the Holy Spirit be 



NEW YEAR'S DAY, 



43 



present to bless, to assist, and to teach us ; may 
He guide us, indeed, into all truth, and show us those 
things which concern the welfare and support of our 
souls, and pertain to our own everlasting salvation. 

The words of the text are addressed by the 
church to Christ. Let us get up early," she says, 
" to the vineyards ; let us see if the vine flourish, 
whether the tender grape appear, and the pome- 
granates bud forth ; there will I give thee my 
loves." And first of all, observe the force of that 
word " tis f " Let tis get up to the vineyards ;" you 
and me ; the church and Christ ; the bride will not 
go alone ; she must have the escort of her hea- 
venly Spouse. The church is described as continu- 
ally restless unless her Saviour is with her ; just as 
in the third chapter she says, By night on my bed 
I sought Him whom my soul loveth : I sought 
Him but I found Him not. I will rise now, and go 
about the city ; in the streets, and in the broad- 
ways, I will seek Him whom my soul loveth." And 
again, see her delight when she finds Him. I held 
Him, and would not let \\\m go, until I had brought 
Him into my mother's house, and into the chamber 
of her that conceived me." How like is this language 
to that of Isaiah, when he says, " With my soul have 
I desired thee in the night ; yea, with my spirit 
within me will I seek thee early." And why does 
the church thus cling to her Lord } Why is it that 
she thus pines, when she is deprived for a moment 
of His presence with her } It is on account of His 
love J and His protection. So deep, so infinite is the 



44 



NEW YEAR'S DAY. 



Redeemer's love for His church, that it is to her 
as the warm, genial influence of the noonday sun ; 
enlightening and kindling all her energies, all her 
hopes, all her aspirations ; and purifying her more 
completely from the dross and alloy of sin and 
worldliness. And if that boundless love is removed, 
if a dark cloud of temptation or trial pass between 
the church and the great centre and focus of her 
light, and incite her in a moment of ingratitude 
and unbelief to exclaim, Hath God forgotten to 
be gracious ? " the effect is that of the waning sun, 
sinking at last below the horizon ; and the cold, 
damp dews of nightfall shedding their chilling in- 
fluence over the earth. Without the Saviour's love, 
without the constant manifestation and assurance of 
His love, the church pines and frets in her fancied 
loneliness and misery ; gives way to groundless 
doubts, and discontented murmurings ; thinks that 
she is ill-used and neglected ; and complains of the 
coldness of that love, which in sheer mercy is send- 
ing the trial, or the affliction, or the temptation, 
that her faith may be strengthened, her trust in 
God more fully established. 

And she needs the constant presence of her 
Lord for the sake also of His protection. Weak 
and feeble in herself, subject to a thousand 
temptations, a thousand trials, and utterly unable 
either to foresee or avert the least of them, on her 
Saviour, and on Him alone, she relies for protec- 
tion. He can hush the angry billows which other- 
wise would overwhelm and annihilate her ; at His 



NEW YEAR'S DAY. 



45 



bidding the winds and storms of affliction and 
trouble are quelled ; while He sits at the helm, 
she ''fears no evil for His "strength is made per- 
fect in " the hour of her weakness." And there- 
fore that she may feel and experience the abiding 
presence of His love^ and also that she may be 
satisfied of His fatherly care and protection over 
her, she refuses to go alone ; to go without Him : 
but resolves, like Ruth, Whither thou goest, I 
will go : and where thou lodgest, I will lodge." " Let 
us^' (she says,) " get up early to the vineyard let 
us go together. 

And now for our first practical lesson. We have 
been describing the feelings and sentiments of the 
church ; and we profess to be members of the 
church ; surely, then, we can enter into the misery, 
the loneliness of the bride when she was, or fancied 
herself to be, deprived of her Lord's presence with 
her ; surely we can understand by our own expe- 
rience, her longing, her craving after her Beloved, 
But is it so 1 Alas ! our own hearts condemn us. 
I fear that we shall look in vain for such ardent 
thirstings after Christ as we have here ; such feel- 
ings, such consciousness of empty want and impo- 
tence without His gracious assistance and presence. 
Can we truthfully say that we are never happy 
without Him } that, whatever earthly joys and 
comforts we possess, without Christ, we are of all 
men most miserable V that in His loving smile all 
our happiness, all our delight is centred and fixed } 
and that witJwut that smile our soul pines away 



NEW YEAR'S DAY. 



in desolation, and "refuses to be -comforted," be- 
cause He is not there to shine upon her ? Too often, 
I fear, the sense of Christ's presence and favour is 
with us a secondary pleasure ; too often, so long as 
we are blessed with the comforts, and riches, and 
delights of this world, we care little enough whether 
or not He is within us. So long as the stream runs 
smooth, and the sky is clear, we seldom care whether 
He is steering our bark over the ocean of life, or whe- 
ther we are borne over the still waters by the gentle 
force of the tide, without a steerer, without a pilot. 
But yet when the winds arise, and the waves roll 
above our heads, and threaten to overwhelm us 
altogether, then we are ready enough to seek Him 
from whom alone safety and salvation come ; and 
even are tempted, like the faithless apostles, tq 
accuse Him of neglect and indifference, " Master, 
carest thou not that we perish V But, brethren, if we 
forget our protector in prosperity^ what right have we 
to expect Him to remember us in adversity ? if we 
treat Him with such coldness, such ingratitude in 
life, how do we know that He will care to preserve 
us in the hour of death ? Oh, no ; we must have 
Christ with us always : we should never rest satis- 
fied unless we have an abiding sense of His presence 
within our souls. We must begin with Christ and 
end with Christ ; all we do, all we undertake, must 
be wrought in Christ And therefore let us begin 
another year with Christ. Let us not go to rest 
this night till we have prayed that He may come, 
and dwell within our hearts, to the very end of our 



NEW YEAR'S DAY. 



47 



lives ; and so we shall be able to exclaim, with the 
Psalmist of Israel, I have set the Lord always 
before me/' Let us act like the Apostles of old, 
and follow Christ constantly, co7itinually : like the 
disciples at Emmaus, who co^istrainedYWmy saying, 
" Abide with us : for it is toward evening, and the 
day is far spent ;" and like the aged, venerable 
Paul, who as the evening of his life was fast drawing 
on, could triumphantly rejoice, being persuaded 
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor prin- 
cipalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things 
to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other 
creature, shall be able to separate us from the love 
of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Unless 
we begin the year with Christ, how can we dare 
to hope for His protection and succour during 
it? Remember that He will not come uninvited. 
Ready as He ever is to hail the gentlest whisper of 
His children's prayer, "Abide with us, O Lord!" 
yet He will not manifest His presence in . their 
hearts until that presence be asked in humble 
prayer. Shall we, then, defer to implore the aid of 
this saving, this healing presence 1 Shall we wait 
for another year, another opportunity to invite 
Christ into our souls Who knows if a second 
opportunity will be given to us ? Oh ! let us, on 
this New Year's Day, pray earnestly that the Son 
of God may condescend to dwell in our sinful 
hearts ! may kindle new longings after holiness 
within us ; may purify us, and purge us from the 
stain of every sin ; may draw us, day by day, nearer 



48 



NEW YEAR'S DAY. 



and closer to Himself ; and, when this short life on 
earth shall be ended, may take us to dwell with 
Him in glory everlasting, for ever and even 

But, secondly, listening once more to the voice of 
the bride, we hear her saying, " Let us get up early 
to the vineyards." Those two words imply an idea 
of motion and exertion. Hence, we learn that the 
church is not to rest listless and idle, satisfying her- 
self that her Lord is with her, and that therefore 
she need make no exertion to further her salvation. 
The man who reasons with himself, I am observ- 
ing the daily ordinances of my religion ; I am act- 
ing as an honest, upright man, doing my duty to- 
wards God and towards my neighbour! I trust in 
God's love and mercy ; and I hope that Christ is 
watching over me, and dwelling within me ; what 
else need I do V such a man has not yet arrived 
at the great secret of our religion. Not only must 
we be "sober," but ''vigilant;' not only "pray," 
but " watch/' not only trust in God's fatherly love, 
and Christ's atoning death on the cross, but we 
must exert ourselves to promote our own salvation. 
We have a race to run and we must run it, 
we have a duty to perform, and we must perform 
it. And often that duty is a very hard one ; just as 
the bride says, " Let us get up early to the vine- 
yards," We have all of us our " Hill Difficulty" to 
go up : we have all of us our peculiar hindrances 
and besetting sins ; and we must conquer all of 
them. To some, life is one continual hill ; to others, 
the path is smooth, the journey comparatively easy : 



NJE:IV YEAR'S DA V. 



49 



but all have, at some time or other, to mount, to 
ascend. And it is the ascent which proves the true 
believer. Any one can walk well enough on a 
level road, or over the flowery turf ; but when we 
begin to ascend the hill, then it is that the real, 
true Christian is easily distinguished from the faint- 
hearted, outside, would-be Christian. But since the 
hill is steep, the road often rough and stony, how 
may we hope best to accomplish the laborious 
ascent ? Do as the bride in the text does, Let us 
get up/' Take Christ with you as your guide and 
encourager ; and never fear ; you will get safe 
enough to the top. With Him the rough places'' 
will be made "smooth;" before Hi7ft the "moun- 
tain and hill," so steep, so inaccessible before, will 
be " brought low ;" following in His footsteps, the 
ascent will appear easy, for He will " make your 
feet as hind's feet ;" and, like David of old, "by the 
help of your God," you will be enabled " to leap 
over the wall." 

Learn we then another lesson : that however 
strong the temptations which beset us, however 
many the trials which threaten to crush us, as we 
journey through life, so long as Christ, and Christ 
alone, be our stay, and our hope, and our comfort, 
all will be well. We must not grow dispirited and 
downhearted by contemplating what is possible, 
what seems likely to happen ; but rather invigorate 
and arouse our courage and our faith by dwelling 
upon what is certaift, I mean that we must not 
be always thinking of the troubles, and difficulties 

E 



50 



NE W YEAR'S DA K 



which might overwhelm us ; but rather of the cer- 
tainty, the sureness of Christ's power and Christ's 
love to avert what threatens us, and to bring com- 
fort and support to our weary souls. To some of 
us the year which has just begun may be a constant, 
a daily ascent. Be it so, if it is God's will. And 
shall we not go forth boldly trusting not in our own 
strength, but in Christ Jesus our Saviour ; ready to 
face any difficulty, to make any exertion, with the 
Lord for our "righteousness and strength.'*" And 
if this should be the last New Year's Day which 
we shall see on earth ; if, on arriving at the sum- 
mit, we shall be obliged to descend into the dark 
river of death, shall we not fix our eyes on the 
glories which await us on the other side ; and 
plunge into the deep waters hopefully, prayerfully, 
readily ; knowing full well that even in " the valley 
of the shadow of death," that "rod" and that 
"staff" which have supported our tottering steps 
all along through life, will not fail at the last hour 
to " comfort " us. 

Thirdly, " Let us go up early T So says the bride ; 
let us in practice echo her words. Every exertion 
we make, every step we take towards Heaven, let 
us do it " early r The bride is anxious to visit her 
vineyards " early," that is in the morning. And 
why then ? Because the sun has not risen to its 
fiercest heat ; the cooling dews of Heaven have not 
yet left the moist ground ; and therefore she feels 
it easier to make the exertion before the heat of the 
day. She cannot endure the full heat of the noon- 



NEW YEAR'S DAY. 



51 



day sun ; she tells us so before, Look not upon 
me, because I am black, because the sun hath 
looked upon me because, that is, the sun, the 
burning sun of trial and temptation has oppressed 
me ; and therefore she wants to set out early," 
before she is exposed to the meridian scorching 
of the sun. What then are we to learn from this ? 
That in religion, as in everything else, it is best to 
begin early ; just as God says by the mouth of 
Solomon, Those that seek me early shall find 
me;" and again, ''Remember now thy Creator in 
the days of thy youth :" because temptations grow, 
as it were, in power just as children grow in years ; 
and there is less temptation in youth, that is to say, 
temptation of a lighter kind in youth ; and there- 
fore unless we accustom ourselves to fight against 
it then, we shall not be so well able to resist it in 
after years when it shall have acquired greater 
strength. 

But we may derive another meaning of equal 
importance from this word ''early." It appears 
from the context that the bride is addressing her 
Spouse in the morning ; and therefore when she 
says, "Let us get up early to the vineyards," she 
means, let us go while it is early ; let us go at once. 
Oh ! how often, in perusing the Bible, do we find illus- 
trations of that warning voice of the Apostle, " Now 
is the day of salvation." Brethren, with us " now " is 
this opening day of another year. Have we employed 
it in redeeming the time, and reflecting that the 
days of our life are few } that we are twelve months 



52 



NEW YEARS DAY, 



nearer to Heaven or to Hell than we were last 
January ? Have we been acting as if we felt that 
''this is the day of salvation V Or have we been 
occupied only in spending the day as the first of 
a happy New Year without laying the foundation 
of a holy New Year ? If we have not yet sought 
Jesus, let us seek Him at once. If we have not 
already taken care to begin this day with Christ, at 
least let us not end it without Him. Now, while we 
have life and strength ; now, while we have time 
and opportunities ; now, while yet there is a chance, 
let us flee to Him, and hide ourselves under "the 
shadow of His wings." How dare we pray this 
night, " Thy kingdom come," if we are not pre- 
pared, or at least preparing for that kingdom } 
How dare we make our petitions that His "will 
may be done on earth, as it is in Heaven," whilst 
we are living in daily opposition to that will } Oh ! 
come then at once, whilst it is " early." Come be- 
fore night ; to-morrow morning may be too late. 
Come now to Christ Jesus your Saviour ; and be not 
so foolhardy, so presumptuous, as to begin another 
year without assuring yourselves of His care. His 
presence. His protection. With all your oppor- 
tunities, all your means of grace, all your advan- 
tages, " why will ye die, O house of Israel t " 

But having thus inquired with whom we are to 
go, how we are to go, and when we are to go, 
we come to ask in the next place whither we are to 
go : " Let us get up early to the vineyards!' And 
what are we to understand by the " vineyards " of 



NEIV YEAR'S BAY. 



53 



the church ? What but the hearts of her children ? 
Observe for a moment the aptness of the metaphor. 
It is not " the vineyard" but " the vineyards more 
than one are spoken of ; different vineyards ; dif- 
fering in size, in soil, and in fertility. Now, a vine- 
yard may be very large, and yet barren ; or very 
small, and yet remarkably fruitful. Just so a man 
may have wealth, understanding, an abundance of 
means and advantages, and yet be utterly unprofit- 
able at the great harvest home of the gospel : 
whilst a poor, illiterate, simple-minded man, with 
not half the means, or half the opportunities of the 
other, may be twice as fruitful, twice as holy, twice 
as sincere. Again, a vineyard may be blessed with 
a rich, loamy soil ; or it may present nought but a 
mass of stones, and entangled roots of former crops 
beneath the surface : so too, the heart of one man 
is meek and gentle, gladly receiving the seed of the 
word, and turning it to good account ; whilst the 
heart of another is hard as adamant, cold to the 
gospel invitations of mercy, stubborn, self-willed, 
and unbelieving. Once more, a vineyard is nothing 
but a bare, rugged tract of land, till it be tilled and 
cultivated, hedged in and enclosed ; neither is man's 
unregenerate heart fit for anything, till it has been 
influenced by the Holy Spirit of God, and prepared 
and broken up by the conviction <pf the word of 
life, to receive the good seed of the gospel. 

The church of Christ is peculiarly a possessor 
of vineyards. She is God's steward, God's agent 
on earth. She has, moreover, numerous vineyards, 



54 



YEAR'S DA K 



for which she is responsible. She has a foreign 
vineyard, that vast field of missionary labour, where 
she is toiling night and day to win fresh souls to 
Christ. This vineyard is made up of multitudes of 
smaller ones. A vineyard in India ; another in 
China ; another in Africa ; another in America ; 
another among the savage islands of the Pacific. 
All these are comprised in the foreign vineyard. 
Then there is her home vineyard, in which she 
labours to bring her own countrymen to the fold of 
Christ ; her Bible Mission ; her Scripture- Readers' 
Association ; her Sabbath-rest Association ; all these 
are branches of the home vineyard. These are what 
may be called general vineyards : and then there is 
another, involved in all the larger and more exten- 
sive fields of labour, of necessity mixed up with 
each and all ; an individual vineyard, a vineyard of 
hearts. This is the vineyard whither we will follow 
the bride to-day. And, like her, with Christ as our 
assisting guide^ and His word as the truest and 
surest test, let us look into our own hearts, and see 
whether the reviving and life-giving grace of God 
is really there. Let us, on the New Year s Day, 
adopt the humble prayer of David. " Try me, O 
God, and seek the ground of my heart ; prove me, 
and examine my thoughts.*' And let us search 
well our own spirits, and see what are our hopes, 
our prospects, our intentions, for the year to come. 
Let us, in pursuance of the apostle's advice, 
''examine ourselves whether we be in the faith, 
and prove our own selves." Let us take heed unto 



NEIV YEAR'S DAK 



55 



"ourselves that we despise not the grace of God, nor 
grieve" that Holy Spirit, whereby we are sealed 
unto the day of redemption." Let us see if the 
vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and 
the pomegranates bud forth." Observe here the 
church's care for the J^lanl generally, and then for 
the fruit in particular. First for the plant in 
general ; " let us see if the vine flourish." And 
since we have imagined the vineyards to represent 
the hearts of men, what are we to understand by 
the vine ? What, but the plant of God's planting, 
the " seed of the word," which He engrafts in the 
hearts of His people } And how can this heavenly 
germ, this good seed, be said to '^flourish'' in our 
hearts?* How can the word of life live and grow 
in us ? The better to answer these questions, let 
us glance for a moment at the natural world, and 
ask, How is it that the vine appears so green and 
verdant in summer time 1 How is it that it puts 
forth its bright leaves, its clinging tendrils, its tiny 
shoots, its purple fruit } Is it not the genial 
influence of the noonday sun } the nourishing 
irrigation of the morning dew .'^ and the mild 
breath of the gentle winds of spring } and the rich 
and fertile nature of the soil.'* Are not these the 
means ? And so it is in the spiritual world : the 
four great elements of our being — earth, air, fire, 
and water — these constituent parts of the book of 
nature are clearly reflected in the wondrous book 
of grace. Just as a vine will never flourish on a 
bai-ren, unprofitable soil, so the word of God, we 



56 



NEW YEAR'S DAY, 



are told, can never take deep root except in good 
ground. If the seed fall *' by the wayside/' on a 
bare, trodden path^ our Lord declares that Satan 
will surely come, and, like the "fowls of the air,'' 
devour it Or if it be sown among the thorns of 
care, and anxiety of riches and of this life, its early 
growth will be stunted and choked. Or if it fall 
on stony ground, on hearts which have no root in 
themselves, no subsoil^ nothing below the surface^ 
the sun of persecution or affliction will scorch and 
overpower them. Good seed must be sown in good 
ground: and unless our hearts afford the necessary 
depth of soil to make it fruitful^ we shall look in 
vain for the vine to flourish,'' 

But air is another component of the soiiFs fer- 
tility. The winds of heaven strengthen and in=- 
vigorate the young plants, and we, too, want spring 
breezes in our sotdsj to nourish and fertilize the 
gospel seed. And what kind of wind ? That same 
rushing mighty wind which fell on the apostles at 
the Pentecostal celebration ; that same wind which^ 
shortly afterwards, shook the place where the con- 
verts "were assembled together, and they were all 
filled with the Holy Ghost" Yes ; we want the 
gentle inspiration of the Spirit of God to teach us 
how to receive the seed; and when that seed is 
firmly planted, to nourish it, cultivate it, and prune 
it. The wind, you know, strengthens the young 
tree, so that, when old, it may bear up against 
heavier gales and storms. And so God's Spirit 
strengthens the vine in the soul, by gentle yet 



NEW YEAR'S DAY. 



57 



needful discipline, so that, when affliction or trial 
arises, it may not succumb to the gale, and may 
not be blown about by "every blast of vain 
doctrine." 

Again, as in the natural^ so in the spiritual v^oxX^^ 
there is need of the genial warmth of the sun. And 
who, save the loving " Sun of righteousness," can 
inspire with bright beams of light " the hearts of 
His people ; make them fruitful, fertile, profitable ? 
Our hearts must feel the warm rays of that glorified 
meteor shining down upon, and into them, before 
the ground will be sufficiently prepared to turn the 
seed sown to good account. Unless Christ Jesus is 
there to counteract, as it were, the storms and 
tempests of Satan's raising, the weak plants will 
droop and wither for want of heat and warmth. 
Just as we wait for the milder atmosphere of spring 
to bring out all the lovely plants and flowers of our 
gardens, so we must watch for the atmosphere of 
grace, to send forth first the foliage, and then the 
fruit of our spiritual " vines." Our tender plants 
want sun : they are too tender, too delicate, to be 
cut by the bitter winds of adversity, before they 
are grown. Pray we then in the words of our church, 
that God may " Cast His bright beams of light" 
upon us, that we " may so walk in the light of His 
truth, that we may at length attain to the light of 
everlasting life." 

Once more then, there is need of the element 
water, the dew of God's blessing, to moisten the 
soil, to nourish the plant, and to prevent its being 



58 



NEW YEARS DAY, 



parched and scorched by the too great heat of the 
sun. Paul planted, ApoUos watered ; but God 
gave the increase." It is God's plant : and therefore 
it must be irrigated by God's blessing. No one 
surely can question our need of this grace : all must 
feel that their own hearts are by nature hard and 
stony, and that it is only God's grace and mercy 
which can touch or melt the obduracy of unregene- 
rate man. And if God's grace is not in our hearts, 
how can we hope to be saved } If our "vines" 
are not being daily replenished by His blessing, 
how are they ever to become fruitful } Each one 
of us has his own peculiar " vine," for which he, and 
he alone, will be responsible. We have each re- 
ceived the grace of God's Spirit at our baptism ; 
and from our earliest years the good seed, the 
heavenly "vine" has been sown in our hearts. If 
then we refuse to attend to, and cultivate this pre- 
cious plant, it must wither away and remain un- 
fruitful. Unless we look early to the seed^ we shall 
never be able to reap the harvest. And oh ! what 
misery will be ours, if, at the last great day of ac- 
count, when the harvest of the gospel shall be 
reaped into the garner of everlasting life, we shall be 
found amongst the tares, and set aside to be burned. 
Oh ! take good care then, while life and time are 
given you, so to amend your ways, and so to walk 
before God on earth, that you may have no reason 
to regret wasted talents, and neglected opportuni- 
ties : " They made me keeper of the vineyards ; but 
mine own vineyard have I not kept." 



NEW YEAR'S DAY. 



59 



Notice, secondly, the care of the church for the 
fruit in particiUar ; Whether the tender grape 
appear/' Since the vineyard " is the heart of 
man, and the " vine " the word of God sown therein, 
it follows that the fruit of the vine must be the 
ordinary effects and productions of that heavenly 
seed ; that is to say, all those " fruits of righteous- 
ness which are by Jesus Christ to the praise and 
glory of God ;" Christian graces and Christian 
virtues. Looking into our own hearts, can we dis- 
cover any such signs of holiness ? have we faith, 
hope, love, humility ? It does not follow as a 
natural course of things, that the mere sowing of 
the seed will produce such effects ; any more than 
when we plant crops, we can tell whether they will 
produce an abundant or a poor harvest. The bride 
is not certain that she will find grapes on her vines : 
she goes to see " whether they are beginning to 
appear. And in the same way, we must not reckon 
confidently on the fertility of our souls, till we can 
perceive actual proofs of their fruitfulness. And 
what are the proofs } These very effects ; these 
very virtues which I have mentioned ; and many 
more. We know the wise saying of our Lord, A 
good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit and there- 
fore, if we find these good fruits, we may venture to 
hope that the parent tree is also good. But if not ; 
if no tender grape appear ; if we can find no such 
marks and signs of a holy life ; let us remember 
that the fault must be ours ; and let us endeavour 
at once to remedy it. And what is the remedy } 



6o 



NEW YEAR'S DAY. 



Two common-place words will tell it — Watch and 
Pray!' Watch against what is evil : pray for whaf 
is good. Watch against sin : pray for grace and 
strength^ that you may watch the better. The gar- 
dener, or the farmer, who is disappointed of an 
expected crop, does not sit down in despair to fret 
over his loss ; but immediately considers how he 
may avoid such a mishap another season ; and pays 
still greater care and greater attention to his 
ploughing and sowing than heretofore. Brethren, 
\{ you too find no " tender grape " on your " vines," 
" go, and do likewise." Use greater diligence to 
keep the seed in your heart, and to keep sin out of 
it ; and pray earnestly and hopefully that your 
labours may not be unrequited ; nor your care, 
your pains, altogether in vain. And so, when " the 
harvest is past, and the summer ended," for the 
sake of Christ Jesus you will be saved. 

But before we leave this part of our subject, 
we must learn yet another lesson from the bride's 
care for her flowers as well as her fruit "Let 
us see (she says) whether the pomegranates 
forth!' That word " bud " clearly shows her ex- 
pectation of a blossom : and what learn we here ? 
That whilst we are bringing iorth. fruit unto life, 
there should also be the flower, the bright blossom 
of the fruit. The fruit for God ; the flower for 
man. The fruit (we have said) is faith, hope, love, 
and the other Christian graces ; then the flower will 
be the sign, as it were, of these ; the light to " shine 
before men ;" proof of faith, and hope, and love, 



NEW YEAR'S DAY. 



6i 



good works. But we must carefully guard against a 
too common error in the world, that these good 
works are essential to salvation. The blossom of 
fruit trees, however abundant, however lovely to the 
eyes, is yet of no use whatever to man, except as a 
token or forerunner of the fruit. In the same way 
good works are useful only as a proof, an outward 
sign, of inward faith ; but of themselves not neces- 
sary to salvation or justification. ^^We conclude 
(writes an apostle) that a man is justified by faith 
zvithout the deeds of the law." But (says St. James) 
faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." 
The flower shines bright and beautiful to the sight 
of man ; so our good works are outward signs to 
the world at large, who can only witness the deed^ 
but are unable to read the motive. And since God 
alone is able to read the hearty oh ! let us take 
diligent heed lest our good works proceed from 
wrong motives. The blossom may be most plen- 
tiful, and yet the fruit little or none ; so our good 
works may appear most noble, most excellent to 
man^ while there is no real fruit, no " tender grape," 
no flourishing "vine." 

But whilst we are warned against displaying our 
blossom without any good fruity it is always as well 
that there should be the flower, provided there is 
also the fruit. It is always as well that we should 
show forth our profession before men, not ostenta- 
tiously, not vaingloriously ; but humbly, quietly, 
meekly, that others may learn from our example 
to walk rightly and holily before their God. Let 



62 



NEIV YEAR'S DA V. 



your light so shine before men'* — so, up to such a 
point, and not beyond it, in a certain degree, and 
no further ; for the glory of God, and not for your 
ow7t praise ; that they may see your good works 
and glorify (not j/ou, but) your Father which is in 
heaven/' The true Christian is a Christian at heart; 
and yet no one can doubt that he is a Christian. There 
is that in his demeanour, and his conversation which 
bespeaks his profession at once. He is not ashamed 
to be known and looked upon as such : and at the 
same time, he does not display his goodness openly, 
but leaves his neighbours to find it out in his cha- 
racter and his conduct. Such a man bears both 
blossom and fruit. There is a kernel within the 
nut ; an opening flower within the bud. Let us 
then " do likewise." Let us be fruitbearers for the 
glory of God^ and our own salvation ; and flower- 
bearers for the good of our fellow ine7i : and when 
we look into our own vineyards to see if ^' the ten- 
der grape appear," let us look well too whether 
the pomegranates bud forth." 
Last of all, notice the bride's promise^ "There 
will I give thee my loves." " There in the " vine- 
yards in my heart. Yes, if we look into, and 
examine well and in a right spirit, our own sinful 
hearts, the effort must be to excite our warmest 
love to Christ. Because a sincere, candid search 
will at once convince us of our guilt and sin. This 
discovery will lead us to exclaim, What must I do 
to be saved 1 " and the spirit of conviction will 
return an answer, " Believe on the Lord Jesus 



NEW YEAR'S DAY. 



63 



Christ." And why on Christ ? Because He died 
to take away our sin; He gave Himself unto 
deatky that we, by His death, might have life. And 
who can think on this subject unmoved t Who 
can meditate on the exceeding love of Christ to 
himy and not feel a burning desire to know and to 
love Christ Himself? Yes ; self-examination con- 
ducted in a humble, conscious, earnest, prayerful 
spirit, has this great end and object, to teach us to 
love Christ more. First convinced of sin, then led 
to seek a Saviour, then brought to meditate on all 
that wondrous scheme which constitutes His claim 
to the title of Saviour, and we must love Him. 
And still more, if we love Himy we are assured that 
He will love us. I love them (God says) that love 
me." And again, Draw nigh unto Gody and He 
will draw nigh unto you.'' Brethren, let us begin 
this new year with Christ ; and to that end let us 
examine our own hearts. Let us prove ourselves in 
a humble, penitent spirit ; and we shall surely find 
that there is none other name under heaven given 
among men whereby we must be saved." Oh ! 
let us not forget that we have each our vine'' 
planted by God Himself; and that for the fruit of 
it we shall soon, we know not how soon, be respon- 
sible. Pray we then that that awful day may not 
find us unworthy cumberers of the ground ; but 
that, when the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, 
and the angels shall go forth into all quarters of 
the world to reap in the Gospel harvest, we may 
each of us be gathered into the garner of life a 



64 



NEW YEAR'S DAY, 



sheaf ripe for immortality. Let us then, in peni- 
tence for the countless sins of the past, and with 
earnest resolutions to amend our ways for the time 
to come, let us with Christ for our guide and our 
teacher, " get up early " to our own " vineyards," 
and " see if the vine flourish, whether the tender 
grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth." Let 
us daily examine well our own hearts, and " search 
out our spirits." Let us prepare our souls to be a 
fit habitation, and acceptable temple of purity and 
holiness for our Lord and Saviour. Let us pray 
that He in mercy and condescension may come 
and dwell within us ; and there let us give Him our 
loves. 



SERMON V. 



New Year's Day, 1863. 

" For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be 
much required." — Luke xii. 48, 

HUS did our blessed Lord conclude an 
urgent exhortation to his apostles to 
persevere in the Christian duty of watch- 
fulness. He had spoken of the impor- 
tance of spiritual things over earthly ; the interests 
of the sold over the concerns of the body. Take 
no thought for your life, but rather seek ye the 
kingdom of God." And then He goes on to point 
out the way in which the kingdom of God was to 
be sought : which He does by laying down two 
heads of Christian duty, comprehending in them- 
selves the sum and substance of the Christian life, 
charity, and v/atchfulness. Sell that ye have (He 
says) and give alms. Let your loins be girded 
about and your lamps burning." These two rules 
it will be seen, severally represent duty to ina7i, and 
duty to God. That which inculcates charity im- 
plying, not merely the literal act of almsgiving ; but 
the going out of our own way, and at some loss and 
disadvantage to ourselves, to administer to another : 

F 




66 



NEW YEAR'S DAY. 



and that which urges the necessity of watchfulness, 
implying attention to all those duties which are the 
external proofs of our faith ; and especially to those 
religious exercises by which we still further evince 
our belief in the truth of God's revealed word, the 
present efficacy of the once-ofifered sacrifice, and the 
reality and eternal decision of the judgment to come. 

On this duty of vigilance, our Lord enlarges to 
some extent : and having done so, He concludes 
with the argument of the text ; as if still further to 
impress the lesson on the minds of His hearers ; For 
unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be 
much required." He reminds them that they can- 
not excuse themselves from the performance of 
their duty on the ground that they know not how 
much is expected of them. They know their 
Lord's will ; they can, if they choose, perform it. 
They are not left in ignorance of their duty ; they 
are plainly told what is, and what is not to be 
done. And therefore if, with this knowledge, they 
still refuse obedience, theirs will be the fate of that 
servant, who knew his Lord's will, and did it not ; 
who "shall be beaten with many stripes." And 
this (our Lord continues) is no unusual and unfair 
retribution : it is no more than is constantly oc- 
curring between man and man : ''To whom men have 
committed much, of him they will ask the more." 

The principle, then, which lies at the bottom of 
all this, is one that ought to be very familiar to us ; 
for it is found in one shape or another in many 
parts of God's word : namely this, the greater our 



NEW YEAR'S DAY. 



67 



blessings, the greater are our responsibilities. God's 
gifts to man are not the result of some profound 
mechanism ; they do not come with a self-acting, 
automaton, power : they are issued from the great 
treasury of perfect wisdom and omnipotent design ; 
and they are sent with a special purpose. Each 
leaves its own invisible im^press upon the recipient. 
The giving of the gift has an influence and effect 
upon the person to whom it is sent. Every gift 
that we receive from God is by us used, or abused. 
And just according as we use or abuse it, so do we 
show ourselves alive to, or unconscious of, the re- 
sponsibility which it brings. If we receive our 
blessings as sucky mindful of their origin, their un- 
deservedness on our part, and the token they give 
of our Father's unfailing love, then they are of use 
to us, and are doubly blessings ; but if we receive 
them as mere matters of course, and as forming 
part of the daily routine of life, and think that we 
have a right to them, and are dealt hardly with if 
one is withheld, then do they become judgments, 
rather than mercies ; because we will not see the 
mercy that pervades them, but increase our own 
condemnation by the way in which we regard them. 
Those only who feel, with deep gratitude in their 
hearts, that unto them much has been given, will be 
really sensible of, and keep in daily and practical 
remembrance, the consequence that ensues ; " of 
them will be much required." 

But let us endeavour to bring this truth more 
closely home to ourselves by considering it with 



68 



NEW YEAR'S DAY, 



special reference to the year which has lately closed, 
and that which has just begun. Let us think a 
little of the past year. How completely studded 
has it been with mercies ! If we try to count up all 
the mercies we have experienced during the last 
twelve months, how do they crowd around our 
memory in every form and shape, and set all our 
powers of recollection at defiance ! Can we point 
to a single day, to a single hour, in the past year 
which has not brought us some gift from God, how- 
ever unmindful we were at the time to esteem it as 
such } With regard to our temporal mercies ; the 
very fact of our being alive and in health to-day is 
in itself an abundant proof that we have " received 
good at the hand of the Lord." How have we been 
preserved day after day, and night after night ! 
How has the loving arm of omnipotence protected 
us in our duties and occupations, in our hours of 
labour, and hours of relaxation ! And how have 
unseen angel guardians watched our bed and de- 
fended us from ^^the pestilence that walketh in dark- 
ness," as well as from " the sickness that destroyeth 
in the noonday !" We have taken thought for our 
food and raiment : and attributed our unfailing 
supply of the necessaries and comforts of life to our 
own precaution and arrangement ; and thought not 
of "our daily bread" as the gift of that "heavenly 
Father " who " knoweth that we have need of all 
these things," and supplies them from the store- 
house of His infinite love. We have sought after 
pleasure, innocent, lawful pleasure ; but have not 



NEW YEAR'S DAY, 



69 



been ready to thank God for it. We have been per- 
mitted to enjoy our temporal blessings, but this 
power of enjoyment has not been accounted a bless- 
ing in itself If we have been in sickness, we have 
been brought safely thimigk that sickness ; if we 
have been visited with distress, affliction, or sorrow, 
we have been supported under it : if we have 
been (and who has not ?) in special scenes of 
perplexity, trial, and temptation, we have been 
delivered from them ; and we are here as living 
witnesses to the providential care of our heavenly 
Father ; monuments of His ever watchful, unceasing 
supervision ; and proofs, too, that He is the source 
of our preservation, and of ^^all the blessings of 
this life," as well as our Creator and Redeemer. 

And then our spiritual blessings have also 
abounded to us. How many have been our oppor- 
tunities, our privileges, our means of grace. The 
gates of heaven have ever been open to our prayers. 
Not a day, nor an hour has there been when we 
might not have had access to the Father. The 
word of God has been within our reach day after 
day. His sanctuary has been constantly open to 
us, wherein to join our prayers and praises with 
the voice of the congregation. There we have 
had many precious opportunities of hearing His 
word read, and preached ; and of celebrating 
the dying love of our ever blessed Redeemer. 
These and many other such blessings have been 
ours. But how have we used them } What proof 
have we to offer that they have not been altogether 



70 



NEW YEAR'S DAY, 



lost to us ? that they have left some little impression 
for good ? that they have in some measure moulded 
us more into the image of Christ, and made us 
holier in heart and life ? 

Or again ; to widen our range from the con- 
sideration of our individual blessings to those which 
we have received as a nation. How have we been 
prospered ? How have we been enabled to pre- 
serve peace and tranquillity in our borders ; to reap 
the fruits of our labours ; to extend our commerce ; 
and increase our wealth ! And though the want 
and distress, which has fallen on many of our coun- 
trymen, may be urged as a set-off to all those 
blessings ; still it is but one trial against an innu- 
merable array of mercies, and all undeserved. 
What right have we to expect so unvarying a con- 
tinuance of God's gifts ? They are not our due : 
God is not man's debtor ; we cannot claim His pro- 
vidential goodness as our right: and yet how apt 
are we to seize hold of some one adversity into 
which we rnay have come, and to lay great stress 
on that ; instead of thankfully counting up all our 
blessings and wondering that the proportion is not 
reversed ; and that, in accordance with our own 
deserts, our lot is not one blessing and a long train 
of evils. 

Whether, then, in our retrospection of the old 
year, we think of the temporal blessings we have re- 
ceived ; or of our spiritual privileges ; or of our 
national mercies — whether we try to enumerate 
these, and to count up each individually, or take 



NEIV YEAR'S DAY. 



71 



merely the most prominent and the most marked, 
still we must sooner or later arrive at the truth 
which is so indelibly printed on the relics of the 
past ; unto us much has been given. Our cup of 
blessing has been filled to the brim : the Lord has 
showered down his gifts in copious benevolence ; 
on the right hand, and on the left, we have seen the 
signs of His Fatherly love ; and the experience of 
the past year is only a confirmation of the experience 
of its predecessors, that goodness and mercy" 
have followed us all the days of our life." 

But, inasmuch as each blessing brings with it its 
own responsibility, how great must be the obliga- 
tions that have devolved upon us from all our past 
mercies, our past deliverances, our past gifts. Who 
can look back upon that long array of blessings, and 
feel that he has been mindful of his responsibility, 
or has been able to answer his obligations ? The 
^-i/t we have eagerly snatched ; that which was in- 
volved in it we have lost sight of or forgotten. The 
outward and visible blessing we have joyfully — 
perhaps thankfully — received ; the inward and spi- 
ritual effect, which it might have had, we have 
thought little or nothing about Surely " it is high 
time to awake out of sleep ;" the responsibility is 
with us whether we regard it or not ; we cannot 
shake it off ; shall we not try, and answer to its 
call ? Many and great, by our own confession, have 
been our mercies ; and unto whomsoever much 
is given, of him shall be much required." If the 
pas^ year has taught that to us has been £^zven 



72 



NEW YEARS DAY. 



much, let the 7iew year remind us each day that of 
us is required much. 

Now is the time for resolutions ; not that it is 
well to be making, or thinking we make, a long 
string of resolutions, and intentions ; because we are 
very apt to be contented with making them ; and 
to have a sort of undefined idea that we shall be 
sure to fulfil them ; or, in other words, that they 
will somehow or other contrive to fulfil themselves. 
One honest, prayerful resolution has far more pro- 
mise of success than ten self-reliant ones. Let us 
resolve to struggle more earnestly against any par- 
ticular sin which we feel is most often our master ; 
and for the rest, let us resolve that, with the help 
of the Divine Spirit, we will try in each other point 
of duty to do our best. It is not a good plan to 
take some 07te defect or failing, and make that the 
subject of all our resolutions and endeavours, be- 
cause we are apt to overlook other equally serious 
defects. Rather let us try to accomplish a general 
improvement of the whole life, at the same time 
watching especially over any peculiarly weak point 
in our heart. Much is required of us. And much 
of what } Not much of empty profession : not 
much of lip-service only : not much drawing near to 
God with our mouth, while our hearts are far from 
Him ; but much practical work : a more hearty de- 
votion of ourselves to our heavenly Father ; a more 
earnest attention to our duties ; a more thankful 
acknowledgment of our mercies ; a deeper interest 
in our spiritual duties ; more fervour in prayer ; 



NEW YEAR'S DAY. 



73 



more sincerity in praise ; more regard for holy 
scripture ; a more constant habit of watchfulness 
and self-discipline ; more daily avej^sion to sin ; 
more daily conversion to God. All this is required 
of us, and a great deal more besides. That God, 
who knows the secrets of every heart, requires of 
each of us to offer Him the first fruits of our heart ; 
to cleanse and garnish that heart for Him, in the 
very way in which He knows, and we know, that it 
is hardest to do. 

There are ways in which we can each try to please 
God more than heretofore, which are known only 
to ourselves. How happy is that man who has re- 
solved thus secretly to glorify God in the inmost 
depths of his own heart ! Let our daily prayer for 
the ensuing year be that of David, — Teach me to 
do the thing that pleaseth thee not merely to 
serve thee from a sense of duty and a servile fear 
of punishment, but to do thy will not only because 
I am commanded to do it, but because it is pleasing 
to thee. And let it be our endeavour to do the will 
of God in a humble, honest, faithful, prayerful 
spirit, ever looking up for help from above ; never 
trusting to ourselves ; always leaning on Christ ; 
and, when we have succeeded in any good endea- 
vour, or been enabled to carry out any good inten- 
tion, ready to say " We are unprofitable servants ; 
we have done that which was our duty to do." 

This, then, is required of us 7iow. But there will 
come a time when far more will be demanded. 
Sooner or later a voice will be heard, This night 



74 



NEIV YEAR'S DAY, 



thy soul shall be required of thee." Then will 
all our opportunities be cut off ; no more time ; 
no more preparation ; no more resolutions. And 
even more than this. A day will come when we 
shall be required to render up not only our lives ; 
not only our faculties ; not only our temporal 
opportunities ; but an account also of the way in 
which we have employed them. Oh ! as we stand 
before that awful judgment throne ; when the eyes 
of Omniscience are searching into our inmost heart, 
shall we be able to look back on a lifetime of im- 
provement, of energy, of work for God 1 or shall we 
shrink back from the dread presence of the Judge, 
as we remember our wasted time, our neglected 
opportunities, our broken resolutions } What pro- 
fit will it then be to plead that our intentions were 
good that we meant to amend our ways 1 that, if 
we had been longer spared, we should have done 
so } Then we shall be called to give account, not 
for intentions, not for our designs, but for our works 
— the actual working of our daily life : not what 
we could do, or would do, or might do, but what 
we have done : and according to that account shall 
our final doom be assigned. Yes ; if anything can 
add to the horrors of the everlasting punishment, it is, 
that the wicked will go to it self-convicted, self-con- 
demned, out of their own mouth judged worthy of it. 

O that we may have grace and resolution so 
to improve this opening year, that each sabbath as 
it comes and goes may be a milestone on our hea- 
venward road ; and bring us nearer and nearer to 
the Everlasting Hills." 



SERMON VI. 



The Eve of the Purification of Saint 
Mary the Virgin, 1863. 

" And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary His 
mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again 
of many in Israel ; and for a sign which shall be spoken 
against ; (yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul 
also ;) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." — 
Luke ii. 34, 35- 

HE Infant Jesus, brought up for pre- 
sentation to the temple of God, is met 
and recognized by an aged behever. 
Behold, there was a man in Jerusalem 
whose name was Simeon ; and the same man was 
just and devout, waiting for the consolation of 
Israel ; and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And 
it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that 
he should not see death, before he had seen the 
Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the 
temple ; and when the parents brought in the child 
Jesus, to do for Him after the custom of the law, 
then took he Him up in his arms, and blessed God." 
Deeply touching must have been that scene : touch- 
ing as when some aged priest receives an uncon- 
scious infant in his arms at the font of baptism ; 




76 EVE OF THE PURIFICATION OF 



the great Redeemer, disguised in all the weakness 
and helplessness of human childhood^; lying meekly 
in the arms of the venerable Israelite, who had seen 
the promise from afar off, had lived in trustful ex- 
pectation of its fulfilment, and was now permitted 
to embrace it ; the humble carpenter's son, taken 
into the arms of the Jewish Rabbi ; while the 
parents stand by, and listen in mute astonishment ; 
as from the old man's Hps burst forth the rapturous 
song, Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart 
in peace, according to Thy word ; for mine eyes 
have seen Thy salvation." 

This is one of the principal features of the scene 
which our church will to-morrow call upon us to 
contemplate. And in close connection with the 
scene let us, on the eve of the double feast of our 
Lord's presentation and His blessed mother's 
purification, consider the prophecy which was deli- 
vered on the occasion by the inspired Simeon. And 
first observe that though he blessed both our Lord's 
parents, the prediction was made to His mother 
only ; probably because she alone would be present 
at the crucifixion. There is great reason to suppose 
from the fact that Joseph is never mentioned in the 
later gospel history, that he died some time before 
the close of our Lord's ministry. Had he been 
alive, it is not probable that the Saviour would at 
His death have commended the blessed virgin to 
the care of the loved disciple. Besides, the words 
of Simeon's prophecy could not be applied with the 
same force to any but a natural parent. Deeply 



SAINT MARY THE VIRGIN. li 



as, we cannot doubt, our Lord was loved and hon- 
oured by him whose son He was supposed to be ; 
still the emphatic expression, " a sword shall pierce 
through thy own soul also," would lose much of the 
keenness and meaning it bears when applied to a 
mother s heart. And thus, while the old man's 
benediction was for both, his inspired prophecy was 
for her alone who not only wondered at the things 
that were told her concerning her child, but ^* kept" 
them all, " and pondered them in her heart." 

This Child is set for the fall and rising again of 
many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken 
against." The first clause of the sentence may 
imply either that to some the Saviour would be a 
stone of stumbling and a rock of offence ;" while 
others would gladly embrace His proffered salva- 
tion ; or that some persons who at first rejected and 
despised Him, would afterwards be led to recognize 
in Him the true Messiah, and become established 
in His faith as firm disciples. 

In the first case we must carefully guard against 
an error that may arise from the word set ;" 
" This Child is set for the fall — of many in Israel." 
Far be it from us to imagine that Christ's mission 
was ordained or appointed of the Father in order 
that " one of the least " of the sons of men should 
perish. Far be it from us to suppose that the loss 
of one immortal soul was, or could be, in any way 
an object of His coming. The true meaning of that 
passage will be best understood by comparing it 
with similar expressions, of which there are more 



78 EVE OF THE PURIFICATION OF 



than one in the pages of the New Testament. Take 
an instance from the seventeenth chapter of St 
John, There, in the midst of that High-Priestly 
prayer, offered to the Father during the awful walk 
to Gethsemane, we hear the Saviour declaring the 
carefulness with which He had protected the chosen 
twelve : " Those that thou gavest me I have kept, 
and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition ; 
that the scripture might be fulfilled.'* To suppose 
from this that Judas was called to the Apostolate, 
admitted to close union and intimacy with the 
Master, the chosen witness of His power and wis- 
dom, blest with many and great privileges, and 
then allowed to fall from such a height of grace into 
such a depth of perdition, in order that the word of 
prophecy might be accomplished, were to suppose 
that God is a source of damnation^ as well as of 
life. But He whose Spirit spake by the prophets ; 
and who, being God, and therefore omniscient ; be- 
fore whose eyes the mighty volume of all time 
was ever spread out, engraved with the crises 
and events of succeeding ages ; He who from all 
eternity has known the destiny of each immortal 
being that has ever been, or shall ever be, born into 
the world ; because He has known all this, therefore 
has He spoken by His word ; because He has all 
along foreseen the obduracy and impenitence of 
Judas' heart ; and that, in spite of his privileges, he 
would listen to and abide by the dictates of his own 
carnal mind, therefore ^2.^^ that scripture written, 
which has pointed to him in his life and in his death 



SAINT MARY THE VIRGIN, 



79 



under the character of Ahitophel : and so that 
scripture found a secondary fulfilment in the trai- 
tor's end. And thus, in the same way, because the 
Most High foreknew that from the very nature of 
that fuller revelation which it was His pleasure to 
make to man, it would be, in the common course of 
things, a savour of death" unto some, though ^^a 
savour of life" unto many; therefore 6X6^ He declare, 
speaking by the mouth of His servant in the tem- 
ple, This Child is set for the fall^' as well as the 
rising again of many in Israel." To many is the 
prophecy fulfilled even now. Although the gospel 
has been so long established throughout Christen- 
dom ; although its doctrines have for three hundred 
years been so completely incorporated with the 
doctrines of our own church that the common 
Prayer Book is to the faithful the interpreter and 
expounder of the Bible ; still there are those who 
have wilfully fallen on" the very stone" which 
is the foundation and keystone of their brethren's 
faith ; and so, even as the Saviour said that it would 
be, they have been broken," and made shipwreck 
of their own faith. Minds there are which have 
stumbled at the glorious revelation of a human 
Redeemer ; proud hearts which have recoiled from 
the Galilean peasant being a fit object of their 
faith, and have asked, in contemptuous pity for 
their more credulous brethren, Is not this the car- 
penter's son.^" These are they who shrink from 
the cross ; who see no glory in a life of humiliation 
and derision. Like the Jews of old, they would 



8o EVE OF THE PURIFICATION OF 



willingly pay homage to an ideal Saviour ; to such 
an one, that is, as should come up to the standard 
that they themselves formed of what a Saviour 
ought to be ; but, like the Jews, they will not re- 
ceive Him as He is, and as God has fore-ordained 
that He should be. 

But on the other hand, there are those to 
whom the glad tidings of salvation have been the 
means of their " rising!' To some — to many — 
the rejected stone '^is become the head of the 
corner." " Unto you which believe He is precious." 
Those who have not turned away in disgust from 
their lowly Saviour ; who have rather found great 
cause for glorying in the very fact that He was a 
lowly Saviour ; whose chiefest desire has been to 
follow Him in the path (if need be) of humiliation 
and patience : yea, even of scorn and persecution ; 
whose brightest moments, and happiest moments, 
have been those spent in contemplation of that 
cross which has been so insuperable an obstacle to 
others in their faith ; those who, in obedience and 
love to Christ, have renounced ''the pleasures of 
sin," and found how far sweeter are the consolations 
of His religion ; those who know something of the 
joy of a Saviour's presence, and the power of a 
Saviour's blood, and the fulness of a Saviour's pro- 
mise ; these are they who have found in the Naza- 
rene a means of life, and not a stumbling-block ; 
and have entered into the deep meaning of those 
words of the Apostle, '' the man Christ Jesus." 

For those who can glory in the '' offence of the 



SAINT MARY THE VIRGIN. 8i 

cross/' are the very persons who most highly ap- 
preciate the glory of the kingdom. The soul that 
has sought and found the divine Saviour will ever 
love to communicate with the human Saviour. 
There is nothing incompatible between the two. 
On the contrary, the lowliness of the manhood adds 
lustre to the brilliancy of the Godhead. Whilst 
those who stumble because they cannot realize the 
perfection of that manhood, can never have any 
lasting satisfaction in the thought of the as perfect 
Godhead, because their notions of the God are 
dimmed and shaded by the recollection of the man. 

And yet there are some who, having once stum- 
bled, have been by grace enabled to recover them- 
selves and rise again." St. Paul presents a notable 
instance. He verily thought with himself that he 
ought to do many things contrary to the name of 
Jesus of Nazareth," because in his younger days 
he looked upon Christianity as a feeble opposition 
to his own religion ; but, afterwards, when his 
eyes were opened, and his inner man renewed, he 
could grasp by faith the hand so lovingly held out 
to him, and could rejoice, "with joy unspeakable" 
in Him who "was in all points tempted like as we 
are." Other instances of such a restoration the 
history of Christianity records ; that they may be 
abundantly multiplied should be our earnest prayer. 

But further, the Infant Jesus was to be "a sign 
which should be spoken against." This recalls at 
once Isaiah's prophetic description of the Messiah. 
" He is despised and rejected of men." And we 

G 



82 EVE OF THE PURIFICATION OF 



know how His enemies lost no opportunity of re- 
viling and cavilling at Him from the beginning to 
the very end of His ministry. The expression, 
set for a sign/' seems to allude to the custom of 
setting up a standard, or ensign, on a hill, or other 
conspicuous place, to serve as a beacon. Christ 
was the beacon of salvation kindled in the midst of 
a dark world : the cross of atonement has ever 
been the standard and rallying point of the church, 
but while many have eagerly flocked around it, and 
found its saving power, others there have ever been 
who have disparaged its healing virtue, and spoken 
against the satisfaction of the sacrifice thereon, and 
once for all offered. Not only during the earthly 
pilgrimage of the sinless Redeemer was His name 
exposed to the ridicule and derision of the bigoted 
Pharisees and worldly Herodians, but the farther 
the knowledge of His gospel has been extended, 
the more have sprung up the enemies of His cross. 
But still, in the midst of much that is discouraging 
to the earnest Christian ; when the weak heart is 
sometimes cast down by the abundance and in- 
crease of unbelief, there is this to comfort and re- 
cruit our faltering faith, that even the existence of 
unbelief is a living witness to the truth of the Bible. 
The very fact that so many endeavours are made 
to disprove and undermine the truth of Scripture, 
is of itself a strong testimony to their veracity ; for 
it is but the fulfilment of so many predictions, deli- 
vered both by our Lord and His Apostles, that thus 
it nttist be, thus it would be. And so, too, when 



SAINT MARY THE VIRGIN, 83 



we look around, and see how little love there is in 
the world for the blessed Saviour, and hear His 
sacred name profaned, the standard of the cross 
deserted, we may well take comfort from the recol- 
lection that even on the day when, but little more 
than a month old. He was presented before God in 
the temple, an aged believer, guided by the Spirit, 
foretold that He should be, not a monarch, whose 
path should ever be the royal road of triumph ; not 
a popular leader, around whom crowds of admiring 
partisans should assemble ; but a sign that should 
be spoken against." 

Not only is the Saviours name dishonoured, and 
reviled ; the same lot is to be expected by those 
who are sworn to His service. And as if to bring 
out this truth in its strongest light, that not even 
the dearest and nearest to the Master are free from 
trial and contempt for His sake, Simeon inserts 
parenthetically that startling warning, — *^Yea, a 
sword shall pierce through thy own soul also." We 
can imagine that the virgin mother had gone up 
to the temple that day full of joy to present her 
first-born before the Lord. We can fancy her holy 
exultation as she there devoted Him to God, whose 
Son she knew Him to be. And we can also ima- 
gine that she looked forward to many happy days 
spent in her home at Nazareth in training up the 
Holy Child ; and to the pleasure of seeing Him 
gradually attaining to the age when He should 
begin His ministry. We can picture to ourselves 
the happiness that her mother's heart would feel at 



84 EVE OF THE PURIFICATION OF 



seeing Him publicly acknowledging His mission, 
while adoring multitudes recognized Him as their 
expected deliverer. The words of the aged Israelite 
would jar strangely against such bright and sanguine 
hopes ; and all the more after what he had just said 
in His hymn of thanksgiving about the " light to 
lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of God's peo- 
ple Israel words which appeared to indicate a 
triumphant reign over the heathen world, and the 
joyful recognition of the chosen people. The virgin 
must have wondered at the prediction that her child 
was set for the fally' as well as the " rising " of 
many; and still more when she heard Him declared 
to be " a sign that should be spoken against but 
how must she have been amazed at that solemn 
assurance, A sword shall pierce through thy own 
soul also !" In very deed she lived to feel how true 
that word of prophecy was. Grieved she must have 
been at the evident coldness that greeted the very 
cutset of her son's ministry ; deeply pained she 
was, no doubt, when the fickle citizens of her own 
city — those among whom in humble obscurity that 
son had grown up for thirty years — at first " bare 
Him witness, and wondered at the gracious words 
which proceeded out of His mouth and then, a 
little while after, rose up, and thrust Him out of the 
city, and endeavoured to hush for ever those " gra- 
cious words,'' by effecting His premature death. 
But when amongst the motley mixture of friend 
and foe, that stood and gazed on Calvary, ^' there 
stood by the cross of Jesus His mother then did 



SAINT MARY THE VIRGIN, 



85 



she drink her cup of bitterness to the very dregs, 
and reaHze in all its sharpness the truth of the 
warning she once had heard. Then did an unutter- 
able pang shoot through her loving heart ; and 
though we dare not doubt that her faith upheld her, 
and she knew that she was standing at her Saviour's 
feet, still He was her son ; and the utterance of 
His well-known voice, commending her to the care 
of him who had drunk deepest of His confidence 
and love, proved that His human heart still beat 
responsive to the throbbing anguish of His mother's 
wounded soul. 

The last part of Simeon's prophecy is the most 
remarkable. Having declared that the Child should 
be "a sign that would be spoken against," he com- 
pletes his prediction (which was interrupted by the 
parenthesis which we have just considered) with the 
profound announcement that one result of the 
revelation of the Christ would be a revelation 
of the heart of man — that the thoughts of many 
hearts may be revealed." The prediction, if we 
leave out the parenthesis, will be this : " This 
Child is set for the fall and rising again of many in 
Israel ; and for a sign which shall be spoken 
against : (in order) that the thoughts of many- 
hearts may be revealed." But so it ever has been. 
Whilst men are called to rejoice with their Lord, 
and to worship Him in unclouded prosperity and 
peace, they will talk of the blessedness and delight 
of His service : but when tribulation or persecu- 
tion ariseth because of the word," too often " they 



86 EVE OF THE PURIFICATION OF 



are offended/* How many professing Christians 
quail at the sound of a taunt, or tremble at the idea 
of becoming objects of ridicule to their associates ! 
Persons, who fancy themselves very valiant soldiers 
of Christ, ready to do and dare a great deal in His 
service, yet, when that " sign " with which they are 
signed is " spoken against and reviled, are almost 
tempted to ask whether their Christian profession 
be not a curse rather than a blessing. The spirit 
in which a man takes up his cross — the frame of 
mind in which he submits to opposition and injury — 
the way in which he meets his temptations, and 
sets himself to resist them — these are the tests by 
which the thoughts of his heart are revealed. 

It was in the hour of Christ's sufferings and death 
that it was shown what the temper and thoughts of 
men were. Then it was that Joseph of Arimathaea, 
who before was *'a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for 
fear of the Jews,'' came boldly to crave the sacred 
body. Then it was that Nicodemus, the same 
which at the first came to Jesus by night,'' came 
now by daylight " and brought a mixture of myrrh 
and aloes, about an hundred pounds weight for em- 
balming the body. Then it was that Judas "saw 
that He was condemned ; and terminated his own 
wretched life in all the horror of despair : whilst St. 
Peter, who had fallen, rose again to repentance unto 
life. One malefactor blasphemed ; the other prayed. 
Women stood among the crowd on Calvary, and 
cared not for the presence of the lawless Roman 
soldiers, so that they might gaze to the last on the 



SAINT MARY THE VIRGIN, 



87 



Beloved. And one of these same Roman soldiers 
was heard to confess to the two-fold nature of the 
Christ "Truly this man was the Son of Godr 

What was the highest glory of the great apostle 
of the Gentiles ? The cross of our Lord Jesus 
Christ elsewhere he says, " I take pleasure in 
mine infirmitiesr Such was the mind of the repen- 
tant Apostle of the circumcision also who writes, 

Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example 
and again, — "Beloved, think it not strange con- 
cerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though 
some strange thing happened unto you : but rejoice, 
inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings." 
And as it is fellowship with Christ in suffering that 
exposes the worthlessness of an empty and formal 
profession^ so it is this same fellowship which brings 
out the sterling value of a sound and genuine faith. 
While the call to patient endurance of trial, or 
affliction, or sickness, or worldly loss, is the surest 
test of true devotion to Christ, it strikes terror and 
doubt into the heart of him whose house is built 
" without a foundation so that, when he most 
needs the buoyant support of sustaining, trusting 
faith, he finds that what he had flattered himself 
was faith was merely a shell without a kernel — an 
outline sketch filled in with no warm tones of 
colour; and so at the last "the thoughts" of his 
heart are " revealed and being "weighed in the 
balances,'* he is " found wanting." 

One word in conclusion on the solemn lesson 
taught us by the occasion which has furnished us 



S8 EVE OF THE PURIFICATION OF 



with topics for consideration, and which will be 
recalled to us by our church to-morrow. The scene 
before us is twofold : the purification of the mother, 
and the presentation of the Son. Surely we can 
hardly escape the combination of thought that is 
suggested. We have all been presented unto God 
in His temple. Have we desired and endeavoured 
to become " pure in heart," as becomes those whom 
He vouchsafes to call His own ? In the day of 
infancy we were dedicated to God by the office and 
ministry of His holy priesthood, baptized with 
water sanctified to the mystical washing away of 
sin ;" and we promised then by our sureties, and 
subsequently in our own persons, that we would 
strive to live in accordance with " our profession, 
which is to follow the example of our Saviour 
Christ, and to be made like unto Him." The mere 
fact that we have been baptised and confirmed will 
not avail for our salvation, any more than the pre- 
sentation of the infant availed for the purification 
of the parent. This last act required a special 
sacrifice. Unless the prescribed sacrifice was of- 
fered, the mother remained under her legal defile- 
ment. The sacrifice for otir sanctification has been 
offered already : it remains that we present our 
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God." 
Not that such a sacrifice as this can accomplish our 
purification. No sacrifice, no offering of ours can 
avail. On that one perfect oblation of the cross 
must be based all our confidence and hope. And 
in obedience to, and in humble imitation of, that 



SAINT MARY THE VIRGIN, 



89 



Saviour who offered it, we must work the " works 
of righteousness," and bring forth fruits of hohness, 
and mortify all our corrupt affections, and master 
all our carnal lusts and passions, and root out 
every thought of uncleanness and sin, for He has 
said " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall 
see God." 

Having, then, this hope," let us purify ourselves 
"even as He is pure." Let us pray, and strive 
without ceasing, that we may receive, in all its re- 
freshing abundance, the sanctifying influences of 
the Spirit : and may attain more and more in this 
life to the purity of the ever-blessed mother, that 
we may be satisfied in the life to come with the 
fruition of the everlasting Son. 



SERMON VIL 



Ash Wednesday, 1859. 

" Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord : 
Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as 
snow ; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as 
wooV'—Isaiak L i8. 

O regular and so numerous are the 
mercies and blessings which we all re- 
ceive at the hands of God, that if we do 
not take care, and do not sufficiently 
watch over our souls, the natural effect will be the 
lifting up of our corrupt and unregenerate hearts. 
Where so many mercies are bestowed, and bestowed 
so regularly, too, we are apt to regard them in time 
almost as necessaries. We are apt to expect them, 
to wonder if they do not come at the usual time, 
while the real wonder is that they ever come at all. 
Remember, God is not obliged to give us one single 
comfort, one single mercy : He never made an 
agreement with man to keep up a regular supply 
of blessings and conveniences ; and therefore, whe- 
ther He increases or withholds the bounty, He is 
equally ^'justified in His saying, and clear when 
He is judged." The great thing always to keep 




ASH WEDNESDAY, 



91 



in mind is this : not one of the innumerable blessings 
we daily and hourly receive is deserved. If we could 
realize this fact, we should prize our blessings more 
highly while we have them, and be less inclined 
to murmur when they are withheld or altogether 
taken away. But the profusion with which our 
heavenly Father showers upon us mercies and 
blessings of every description ought to produce a 
particular feeling and sentiment in all our hearts. 
If you were to injure or offend some one of your 
neighbours, and he, instead of calling you to ac- 
count for the offensive word or the unjust deed, 
were to pass over the whole matter ; and, as if en- 
deavouring to reinstate himself in your friendship, 
and make up the quarrel, were to make you a hand- 
some present, as if nothing had happened, would 
not such conduct arouse a peculiar sensation in 
your heart } Yes ; I am sure that it would do so in 
every man, whatever his disposition. He might not 
allow it openly, but I am sure that he would feel 
it. I am sure that, at such conduct as this, every 
one, who had been the aggressor, would feel shame. 
Brethren, God's mercies ought to make us feel 
shame : shame that they are so little deserved : 
shame that our sins have so deeply offended our 
Maker : shame that we, who profess to be His 
people, should so grievously trespass against Him : 
shame that, while He is so merciful, we are so 
sinful : shame that we so often crucify the Son 
of God afresh shame that we are so deaf to 
His w^arnings, so unwilling to repent and turn to 



92 



ASH WEDNESDAY. 



Him. And this feeling of shame Avill produce 
another feeling in our breasts — I mean humility. 
If we are ashamed at God's undeserved mercies, 
we shall also be humbled at the thought of our own 
sin. It is in order that we may reflect more seriously 
on these important subjects, and that we may be 
better able to cultivate that most prominent of 
Christian virtues, that the church has set apart 
this day, and the following six weeks, as a time for 
deep meditation, for confession of sin, and the pros- 
tration and humiliation of our souls before our 
offended God. Think not lightly of Lent, brethren. 
Do not regard it as an institution of the primitive, 
rather than the modern church. Surely the modern 
church, the latter-day churchmen have as many 
sins to bewail and confess as the ancient fathers. 
Here is a golden opportunity for such acknowledg- 
ment, appointed by the church ; and a special call 
to such a duty from our God and Father. For 
what says the text — Come, now, and let us reason 
together, saith the Lord : though your sins be as 
scarlet, they shall be as white as snow ; though they 
be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." 

Notice first the invitation ; and secondly, the pro- 
mise. ''Come now, and let us reason together, 
saith the Lord." Observe first that it comes from 
God. Yes ; this most gracious invitation proceeds 
from none other than our offended God. That 
God, against whom we have so deeply sinned, and 
whom we continue daily to offend, by thought, 
word, and deed ; not only proclaims that all, who 



ASH WEDNESDAY. 



93 



choose to come unto Him, shall obtain free pardon 
and remission ; but He even invites the sinner to 
take advantage of that great and inestimable privi- 
lege. How many such messages do we meet in 
perusing the sacred pages of God's word ! " Ho, 
every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, 
and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat ; 
yea, come, buy wine and milk without money, and 
without price/' Come unto Me, all ye that labour 
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." And 
these gracious invitations always express or include 
2, promise: as an assurance that those who come 
will not be coming in vain. And the promise is a 
pledge of spiritual mercies, of bounties, and free 
gifts of grace ; of something to refresh the weary 
soul. In one invitation, ''wine and milk" are 
offered, freely offered, ''without money," — the blood 
of Christ to take away sin, and the milk of the 
word to comfort and encourage the sinner. In 
another " rest " is offered to the " weary and heavy 
laden," spiritual rest — rest from the affliction and 
bondage of sin, and an evil conscience here ; 
and the rest which "remaineth to the people of 
God" hereafter. And in the text there is another 
glorious promise, which we will consider presently. 
Observe, however, that each and all of these free 
invitations are issued by an offended God, That is 
the point to keep in mind ; and thus we shall better 
estimate the intensity of those blessings and mercies 
which we daily receive. For if we had always done 
our duty, and walked before God with integrity 



94 



ASH WEDNESDAY, 



and a good conscience from our youth up, there 
would have been no cause for wonder at these 
blessings ; because we should then have deserved 
them. But now, since we have all gone astray ; 
since^' there is none that doeth good, no, not one;" 
since we are all unprofitable servants there is 
every reason to wonder at the persevering mercy 
and love of God, in thus, in spite of our depravity 
and sin, blessing us with innumerable mercies in 
Christ Jesus. Brethren, had God done nothing 
more for us than give His Son to die for us, there 
would have been ample cause for our wonder : that 
one stupendous act of love is by far too much for 
our comprehension : if He had stopped there, we 
should have no reason to complain. But see how 
He goes on showering down, day after day, mercies, 
comforts, blessings, luxuries : and see too what a 
return we make to Him. Truly did the prophet 
say, in the name of the Lord, All the day long I 
have stretched forth my hands." There is God's 
love and mercy ; but he goes on — " unto a dis- 
obedient and gainsaying people" — there is man's 
ingratitude and sin. 

But now for the invitation itself Come, now, and 
let us reason together." Just consider the exceeding 
love and condescension which are here blended 
together. Observe, God does not say Come, and 
confess your sins ;" or, " Come, and hear the charges 
which I have against you ;" or, " Come and see how 
often and how deeply you have offended Me ; and 
wonder at My mercy in sparing you thus long 



ASH WEDNESDAY. 



95 



but He says, " Come, and let us reason together 
in other words, Come, and discuss the point ; 
say what you have to say, and I will say what 
/ have to say ; come, and argue with Me ; that 
by gentle reasoning I may persuade you that you 
are a sinner ; come, and hear the many proofs 
which I can bring forward to prove the matter 

come, and let us reason together." Think of the 
vastness of the condescension : man invited to 
reason with his Maker ! God agreeing and offering 
to enter into a controversy with man ! How strange 
it seems that, with all the love and gentleness which 
God shows, man is constantly, perseveringly, obsti- 
nately, wilfully sinning against Him, who is so 
eager, so interested in the salvation of each poor 
sinner's soul ! Among the many gracious invita- 
tions and encouragements which abound in God s 
word, you seldom find such a height of condescen- 
sion as we have here, " Let us reason together/' 
You may find two passages of a similar kind ; one 
in the forty-third chapter of this prophecy, where 
the Lord is represented as entreating His people to 
accept his proffered salvation, and saying, " Put me 
in remembrance : let us plead together : declare 
thou, that thou mayest be justified/' The other is 
in the sixth chapter of the prophecy of Micah, at 
the second verse. " The Lord hath a controversy 
with His people, and He will plead with Israel" 
And now, what lesson may we learn from all this } 
God's extreme reluctance to punish His people, if 
He can in any way (so to speak) find an excuse for 



96 



ASH WEDNESDAY. 



them. In the verse just quoted, " declare thou, 
that thou mayest be justified." He seems endea- 
vouring to avoid the painful course of punishment. 
He pleads with the sinner, and says declare thou.'* 
Bring forward any instance of my commands being 
obeyed ; any " deeds of the law," as signs of a 
living faith, that you may not put yourself beyond 
the pale of redemption and eternal life :" " Let us 
\ reason together." This is language which man very 

^ seldom uses to his inferiors. We are generally too 

quick at accusing others, especially our dependents, 
and finding fault with them, and seldom willing to 
hear what they have to say for themselves. We 
seldom care to listen to a long story, which perhaps 
might clearly prove them innocent. But God ad- 
dresses MSy who are lower than the lowest degree of 
inferiors, and says Let us reason together." Say 
what you will : give your excuse ;" bring forth 
your strong reasons : " " declare thou that thou 
mayest be justified." Oh, that this "mind" were 
in us, which was also in Christ Jesus !" On one 
occasion, when men had accused, apprehended, and 
then forsaken and despised, one of their fellow- 
creatures, for yielding to temptation to which they 
were equally liable, what was the Saviour's verdict 

Neither do I condemn thee : go, and sin no 
more." 

But observe again, that the invitation is unlimited, 
and therefore universal. There is no restriction to 
Jew or Gentile ; the invitation is to all ; the promise 
is made to all And this is calculated to convey 



ASH WEDNESDAY. 



97 



comfort to all. No one is excluded. The most 
degraded sinner may come" and "reason" with 
his God. You remember that the woman of Samaria, 
profligate and wicked as she was, was not however 
considered too abject to converse, yes, and to con- 
verse familiarly, with the Lord. So even the hardest 
of hearts may come to the audience-chamber of 
" the great King." Let the desponding one come. 
Let the worldly minded come ; let the proud, the 
self-willed, and the ambitious come : let the humble, 
broken, and contrite heart come. The Saviour 
says, " Come unto me all ye!' " Let him that is 
athirst come ; and whosoever will, let him take the 
water of life freely." " Ho, every one that thirsteth, 
come ye to the waters." -^// are invited. O Lord, 
grant that all may come. 

But another question naturally arises from the 
contemplation of this gracious invitation : How are 
we to accept it t when and how are we to " come 
and reason" with the Lord } Brethren, 7tow is the 
accepted time. This day — this solemn Ash Wed- 
nesday — is the fittest opportunity you can have for 
beginning, if you have never begun before, to 
"reason" with your God. Fall before Him, and 
confess everythmg to Him : secret sins and open 
sins : sins which only your own conscience has 
witnessed, and those which have been committed in 
the sight of the world. And as you " reason," 
beware lest you rebel. Beware lest you are tempted 
to feel that God is dealing severely with you in 
convincing yow of so much sin, so many /////^ sins, 

H 



98 



ASH WEDNESDAY. 



as you call them. It is written, Come, and let us 
reason together, saith the Lord." But it is also 
said, " Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker." 
Remember that, with all your argument, all your 
skill, you must be found guilty : your cause is not 
in the hands of a fellow mait^ subject to like infir- 
mities as yourself, but the hands of an allwise, 
allpure, and sinless God. Therefore, since your 
sin is so evident, so thoroughly indubitable, better 
by far to confess it at once. You cannot disguise it ; 
the only thing you can do, is to acknowledge it. 
Go then at once, one and all ; with bended knees 
and humble demeanour bow before the tribunal of 
the judge ; and then, alone with your God and your 
soul, pour out the depths of your heart, your inmost 
thoughts and desires, before Him who is ever ready 
to hear your petitions, and who, while He hates and 
abhors the sin which estranges the heart from Him, 
still loves and yearns after the si^tner, who was 
originally made in His own likeness, and for whom 
the blood of His well beloved Son was shed. Pray 
then, in the words of our church, that your loving 
Father and God may by His Spirit "create and 
make in you new and contrite hearts, that you 
worthily lamenting your sins, and acknowledging 
your wretchedness, may obtain of the God of all 
mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness," for your 
Saviour's sake. 

But, secondly, an encouragement as well as an 
invitation is given you to confess your sins, and 
that encouragement a free and universal promise. 



ASH WEDNESDAY, 



99 



"Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as 
white as snow; though they be red like crimson, 
they shall be as wool." Now you see, in this verse, 
that the vastness of the gift is expressed by the 
wideness of the contrast. As crimson and scarlet 
are different from white, so is the regenerate heart 
different from the unrenewed and natural heart 
And this great change is the promised gift Brethren, 
it is a valuable gift ; for it can only be given by 
one : it is a wonderful and peculiar change ; for it 
can only be wrought by one. It can only be given by 
Christ ; and it can only be wrought by His blood. 
But further, I think we may with propriety trace a 
few features in the metaphor of the expression in 
the text, which will both justify and explain it. It is 
said, " your sins " " shall be as white as snowy 
Now snow is not only perfect in colour, but also in 
its purity. So we may take the passage to signify, 
" Though your heart was before scarlet with sin, it 
shall now be pure and holy, since your sins are 
pardoned and done away by Christ's blood." Or 
we may take the metaphor in another way, and 
illustrate it thus, — "your sins and transgressions, 
grievous though they be, shall now, through the 
efficacy of Christ's atonement, melt away, vanish, 
disappear, as the snow when exposed to the rays of 
the noonday sun." That is to say, As the natural 
sun melts away the snow, so the ' Sun of Right- 
eousness' shall do away your sins, and blot out 
your transgressions, that they shall be no more seen." 
Again, with reference to the second metaphor, — 
Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as 



lOO 



ASH WEDNESDAY. 



wool," we may, I think, explain it in a more 
familiar, yet not unscriptural, way. Observe that 
sins of a still deeper and darker dye are mentioned, 
and it is declared that they shall be as wool." 
Wool, we know, forms one of our chief articles of 
dress. It undergoes a particular process of purifying 
and cleansing, and is at last offered as clothing. 
May we not then illustrate the verse as follows? 

Your heart, stained and disfigured as it was with 
the most heinous sins, shall now be clothed in 
righteousness, having on the bright * garments of 
salvation.' " Or we may even pursue the idea still 
further, and say, those very actions, which formerly 
sprung from sinful motives, those very desires, 
which the7t savoured of nought but sin, now through 
the renewing power of the Holy Spirit, produce 
such results, excite us to do such things, as clothe 
us with righteousness ; as gird our loins with truth ; 
as cause our light so to shine before men," that they 
may be led to glorify" their and our " Father 
which is in heaven." What I have said is not 
authorised by Scripture : it does not follow that it 
need be so : it is merely a conjecture ; but it is 
always interesting, and also instructive, when we 
meet with this kind of simile in Scripture, to try 
to adapt them to the case in question ; and not to 
pass them over as merely poetical expressions. We 
are told that all Scripture is given by inspiration 
of God ; and is profitable." Surely then researches 
will be of some use to us, if made in a humble and 
inquiring spirit. These metaphors taken from 
earthly and natural things, are meant to prove the 



ASH WEDNESDAY. 



IQl 



immense contrast between God and man, earth and 
heaven. And if we view them as such, we shall not 
fail to be struck with the great truths and encou- 
ragements which they convey. But to return to 
the subject before us. Be my conjecture true and 
correct, or not, it is distinctly and clearly promised 
that our "scarlet" sins, and our "crimson" sins, 
shall be made "white that is, shall be altogether 
pardoned and washed away by the atoning blood 
of Christ Now about this pardon there are two 
things for us to notice — ^what it is, and how we can 
obtain it What is it 1 It is a free, perfect, and 
efficient pardon. We have commented on the free- 
ness, the universality of the invitation; equally 
general is the promise of the text " Though your 
sins," it is said No persons or nations are specified 
in particular. It is not " you Jews," or " you Gen- 
tiles ;" but all you who read or hear the Bible ; all 
you' whose eyes or ears meet with this glorious in- 
vitation ; all yow who have been led to embrace the 
faith of Christ and to become members of His 
church. And while we preach the freeness of the 
promise to the benighted heathen in distant lands, 
believe it to be equally addressed to yourselves. 
The promise is for the Briton, as well as the negro : 
and for the negro, as well as the Briton. If you 
take the whole world in a mass, you will find not 
one to whom it is not addressed ; for each and 
all of mankind it is written ; for their comfort and 
encouragement it is intended. The freeness of the 
pardon is expressed by our Lord in a very simple 



I02 



ASH WEDNESDAY, 



but very beautiful metaphor, that of water. You 
will find it introduced in many places. Take that 
one in the Gospel according to St. John, where 
Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, 
let him come unto me and drink." If any man ; 
no restriction, no distinction. So there is the pas- 
sage before quoted from the prophecy of Isaiah, — 
" Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the 
waters.'' The meanest beggar may drink as much 
as he will of the wayside brook ; no one can pre- 
vent him from quenching his thirst there ; no one 
can extort a farthing from him for the draught. 
Equally, ay, and far more free is the promise of 
pardon. " Without money, and without price/' 
every one may drink of "the water of life freely/* 
Let me quote but one other passage, which is per- 
haps clothed in clearer language than either of these. 
I mean that in the last chapter of the Revelation where 
the general and gracious invitation is uttered, " Let 
him that is athirst come ; and w^hosoever will let 
him take the water of life freely!' Think what an 
immense, what an inestimable gift this is ; this par- 
don through the death and atonement of the Son of 
God. If any of us had power to bestow a very 
valuable favour, we should, of course, expect, if not 
a handsome return, at least some requital for it ; 
but God offers and bestows this most precious of 
all gifts freely y expecting neither recompense nor 
reward. To the rich as well as poor, to the strong 
as well as the weak, the proffered gift is free. No- 
thing to do but to ask for it ; unconditional, without 



ASH WEDNESDAY, 



103 



distinction, perfectly free. Oh ! then, when you 
contemplate this amazing proof of God's love for 
sinners, remember and act upon the Saviour's 
maxim, Freely ye have received, freely give." 

But again, this is a perfect pardon, that is to say, 
all sins are pardoned. It does not apply only to a 
certain class of sins ; all manner of sin" is par- 
doned by Christ's blood. No sins are too small to 
require it ; none are too great to obtain it. Men 
talk of small and great sins, but in this promise God 
makes no such distinction. In His sight "all un- 
righteousness is sin ;" " whatsoever is not of faith is 
sin ;" " sin is the transgression of the law" of God. 
So that, since there is no actual difference in the 
sins, neither is there a distinction made in the 
bestowal of the pardon. It is for the secret, hidden 
transgressions, which have no witness but God and 
conscience ; and for those, too, which are committed 
openly before men. We need pardon for the idle 
word ; yes, for the wicked thought, just as much as, 
if not more than, for the unjust or cruel action. 
Perhaps more ; for without the thought at first, the 
deed would never have been done. Thoughts are 
the parents of actions. The thought of evil, then, is 
in want of pardon. Words, too, are often very 
sinful, very wicked. We injure our neighbour by 
words far oftener than deeds. Many a man is ready 
enough to slander and calumniate a fellow-creature, 
and so tarnish his good report and character, who 
would never think of lifting a finger against him to 
hurt his person. Jesus has declared " By thy words 



104 



ASH WEDNESDAY. 



thou shalt be justified but He added also, " By 
thy words thou shalt be condemned." How faith- 
fully, how fearfully true are the words of St. James, 
when he wrote, " The tongue is a fire, a world of 
iniquity — an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.'* Oh! 
pray that your words may be pardoned, for "every 
idle word that men shall speak, they shall give 
account thereof in the day of judgment." And the 
pardon is perfect too in its durancy. It is not valid 
only for a time, after which we shall need it to be 
renewed. Rem.ember, it is not like a papal indul- 
gence, which allows the people to commit certain 
specified sins during a certain time, at the end 
of which it ceases: the pardon which God gives 
is lasting, everldLsting. I do not mean that we may 
with impunity fall into sin again ; but if we are 
really willing to embrace this gracious gift : and to 
live in such a manner as will show that we duly ap- 
preciate it, and are truly sensible of, and grateful 
for the mercy of our heavenly Father in bestowing 
it ; then we may feel that the gift is really ours ; that 
God has given it ; that man cannot take it away. 

Thirdly, it is an efficient pardon. It is efficient 
in justifying us. It not only takes away our sins, 
but it also makes us appear just before God. It not 
only removes the sin, but it takes away also the 
guilt of that sin. It washes our stained hearts in 
the blood of a crucified Redeemer. It turns our 
scarlet" and " crimson" sins into the whiteness and 
purity of " wool" and "snow." It takes away "the 
stony heart," and gives instead " a heart of flesh." 



ASH WEDNESDAY, 105 

Remember, St. Paul's comforting words to the 
Gentile converts at Corinth, But ye are washed, 
but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the 
name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our 
God." Not only " washed " from sin, but " sanc- 
tified," — clothed with a garment of righteousness. 
Not only "sanctified," but justified — made to ap- 
pear just ; that is, before God, for the sake of His 
beloved Son. Oh ! then, where you are desponding, 
heavy laden with sin, and conscious of its weight, 
yet doubting whether the pardon can be extended 
to such a sinner as you, remember that it is an 
efficient pardon ; able to do all that you require ; 
able to take away and blot out your sins ; able to 
justify you before God, to bring you to His throne 
"washed," "sanctified," "justified," by the precious 
blood of Jesus Christ. 

Such are a few of the principal characteristics of 
the pardon. In conclusion let us say a few words 
as to how it is to be obtained ; especially with re- 
ference to the important duty to which we are called 
to-day. Yes ; until a man is thoroughly humbled 
by the thought of his sin, and brought to confess 
it, and bewail it before God, he will never obtain 
pardon. There must be a secret working of the 
Spirit in the heart to convince' of sin : to prove 
and exhibit sin in its strongest light ; to make the 
sinner feel that there is no middle course } he must 
either be saved or lost, before he will bow in sub- 
mission and penitence at the feet of his offended 
God. It has been truly said, " To be almost saved 



io6 



ASH WEDNESDAY. 



is to be altogether lost." There is no rock, no 
ledge in the gulf between hell and heaven, on 
which the almost persuaded man may rest his foot. 
If heaven is your aim, you must be pardoned, and 
therefore you must seek pardon. Be assured that 
it will not come of itself If you want it you must 
ask for it. The door will not be opened unless you 
knock ; yes, and knock so as to be heard. Knock 
importunately. with your God. Say, as Jacob 

did to the angel, I will not let thee go, except 
thou bless me." If yoii apply at all, let it be in 
earnest. Lukewarm petitions are in fact no petitions 
at all. Be not slack, then, to confess your sins, 
brethren. It is a service, a duty appointed by God 
for the salvation of sinners. Why will you not 
perform it .-^ Is it your pride of heart which pre- 
vents you } Do you feel it to be a degradation to 
acknowledge your sins } Are you afraid of wound- 
ing your own feelings, if you fall before God and 
say, " I acknowledge my transgressions," " God be 
merciful to me a sinner T Believe me, there is 
nothing to be ashamed of in confessing your sins ; 
quite the contrary. The degradation lies in the 
act of sin. You may well be ashamed of that : but 
confession is the only way in which you can atone 
for sin. Rather than feel your pride wounded, you 
should be thankful that the Holy Spirit of God has 
enabled you to see sin in its true light ; has shown 
you yourself in your true colours ; has spurred you 
on to do all you can to please your offended God ; 
has given you grace to confess your sins. Or is it 



ASH WEDNESDAY, 



107 



that you feel that you are such a sinner that it is 
of no use to confess your sins ; that all the confes- 
sion in the world will not save you ? Oh ! banish 
from your heart such thoughts of unbelief. Cannot 
you believe the promises of God ? And He has 
distinctly said, " Though your sins be as scarlet, 
they shall be as white as snow : though they be red 
like crimson, they shall be as wool." Your sins can- 
not be too deeply stained for Chris fs blood to wash 
out. Your heart ca?tnothQ too hard for Chris fs love 
to melt. You cannot be too wicked for Christ's 
atonement to save. You cannot be too worthless 
for Christ to make intercession for. Take comfort, 
then, desponding sinner. Believe that your Saviour 
is offering pardon to yon ; free, perfect, efficient par- 
don to you. Read all He has done ; all He has 
promised to do ; and apply it to yourself. Not 
only believe that He did all that is recorded of 
Him ; but believe that He did it for you. And 
when you can do this, your heart will be so touched 
at the idea of Christ's love for you, that you will 
only be too anxious to obtain the promised gift of 
pardon. Pray, then, for the assistance of the Spirit 
of God that you may confess your sins aright ; that 
you may ''worthily lament" your wretchedness; 
and sue for pardon at the feet of that Saviour, who 
shed His blood for you. Seek Him humbly, peni- 
tently, earnestly, constantly ; and take care that, 
whilst with the mouth confession is made unto 
salvation," at the same time ''with the heart," you 
believe '* unto righteousness." 



SERMON VIII. 



Ascension Day, 1863. 

For our conversation is in heaven ; from whence also we 
look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change 
our vile body, that it maybe fashioned like unto His glorious 
body, according to the working whereby He is able even to 
subdue all things unto Himself. — Philippians iii. 20, 21. 

HE belief which the Christian so often 
professes in his Lord's Ascension, has 
a peculiar interest for him, and a pecu- 
liar hold upon his heart. For inasmuch 
as Jesus has assured us " by many infallible proofs," 
of the perfection of that manhood which He once 
assumed, and has also clearly convinced us that the 
very same body which was crucified rose again 
from the dead, and lived, and conversed with the 
sons of men, during the mystic forty days that 
succeeded the resurrection ; and since we know 
from the testimony of more than one inspired 
writer, that this same body was seen to ascend 
from the green slopes of Olivet by the congregated 
band of apostles ; it follows that our blessed Re- 
deemer has by His glorious ascension taken up 
our nature into heaven ; and so we, the sinful 
children of men, have been in Him and by Him 




ASCENSION DAY. 



exalted. He who, as man, suffered in the lowest 
depths of human humiliation, as man appeared 
again triumphant over death ; and that form in 
which He had undergone His bitterest woes, and 
achieved His greatest victory. He took with Him 
into the presence of the Father, at whose right 
hand He sits enthroned. 

Seeing then that our nature is thus ennobled ; 
seeing how completely that humanity, which fell in 
Adam, has been restored in Christ, what manner 
of persons ought we to be," who not only are by 
nature the sons of Adam, but have been made by 
adoption the sons of God } The great secret of 
the Christian life, that life after which we ought to 
be ever striving, is briefly and powerfully summed 
up by the apostle in a few striking words, *^Our 
conversation is in heaven." 

The apostles, who with eager eyes tried to pene- 
trate the mantling clouds that hid from their view 
their master's form, were rebuked by angelic voices. 
''Why stand ye gazing up into heaven .^^" that is, 
they were bidden to abstain from the vain and 
useless regrets which their disconsolate feelings so 
naturally suggested, because He whose loss they 
mourned was ever near them ; though they could 
no longer see Him with the natural eye, they 
might recognise and acknowledge His presence by 
faith; and thus might set cheerfully about the, 
work which He had given them to do ; trusting in 
His own precious word of promise, ''Lo, I am with 
you alway." And we are by them warned to guard 



no 



ASCENSION DAY, 



against a feeling which is too often indulged, the 
loud and bitter lamentation over that which seems 
to be gone, the guilty indifference to all that re- 
mains ; the passionate regret for what an all-wise 
Father has removed, and the neglect of so much 
that still in His mercy is left. Very different is the 
tenor of those solemn words of St. Paul, " Our con- 
versation is in heaven.'* Let us try to gather a 
few profitable reflections, not inappropriate to this 
holy Ascension-tide, from the words of the text ; 
leading us as they do to notice, first of all, the 
nature of the Christian's life : and secondly, the 
substance of the Christian's hope. And may the 
church's Comforter vouchsafe His covenanted pre- 
sence ; and, in accordance with the Redeemer's 
promise, take of the things of Christ and show 
them unto us. 

This word " conversation," is often used in Scrip- 
ture to represent the whole elementary principle 
of a man's life ; all he thinks and says and does ; 
the way m which he acts, and the motives on which 
he acts. The word signifies literally a turning 
about, and so is used for the sphere in which a man 
moves, and the habits and customs which he ac- 
quires in the course of his daily walk. The Christ- 
ian's whole manner of life, then, " is in heaven." 
He is, as it were, wrapped up and absorbed in 
heaven. He is not satisfied with thinking of 
heaven, or speaking of heaven, occasionally. He 
is not reminded of it merely by the associations of 
Sunday, or the death of a friend. But his con- 



ASCENSION DAY. 



Ill 



versation is in heaven." Something of a heavenly- 
nature is blended with his very thoughts, and his 
life on earth reflects a ray of some higher life. 
His daily work is not merely a routine of com- 
pulsory duties, but it has for him a noble and 
glorious end. God's glory is ever in his view, and 
so even the drudgery of his earthly calling becomes 
imbued with a sanctifying principle, and he finds in 
the most ordinary and common-place duties a path 
which tends towards that eternal kingdom of which 
he has already had some little foretaste. And as 
in heart, so too in word and deed. His temper is 
kept under control ; his tongue is ever truthful ; 
slanderous and profane words are alike abhorred ; 
sympathy and love find vent in acts of quiet, un- 
obtrusive kindness ; and the desire to benefit in 
some way his fellow men comes next to the desire 
to glorify his God. 

But amidst all this there is no outward show. 
The world often passes such an one by altogether, 
and fails to notice the bright points in his character 
and life. Often it will scoff* at such an one, and 
quote in its own way the maxim of the preacher, 

Be not righteous over much.'' There is nothing 
to attract the world, because the world can know 
nothing of a " conversation in heaven;" the inner 
life of the true Christian finds no counterpart in 
the character of the worldly man. The votaries 
of pleasure, the men who have no tinte for religion ; 
the courtiers of the passing " fashion of this world,'* 
of them more truly might it be said, their conversa- 



112 



ASCENSION DAY. 



tion is on earth, centred and fixed on earth, rooted 
and grounded in the things of earth ; for they are 
" of the earth earthy." But the disciple of Jesus 
aims above the world. He ever bears in mind the 
existence of a higher, holier life, and is ever striving 
to overcome the many influences that combine to 
draw him down to the lower earth. In spirit he 
soars upwards into those realms of light where 
stand, to his keen imagination, the gates of heaven, 
and while on earth he goes about his daily work, 
and does with all his might that which his hand 
finds to do, in heart and mind he ascends where 
Christ is gone before, and with Him continually 
dwells. He feels that here he has no continuing 
city," that this is not his home. He has realised 
the important truth that by baptism he has been 
made not only a member of Christ's visible church, 
but also *^an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven 
and so he feels that his citizenship is in heaven, and 
he can already claim a sort of brotherhood in Christ 
with the saints and with all " the household of God." 
And, once more, he has laid up his treasure in 
heaven. He has stored up enduring riches in that 
place where alone "neither moth nor rust doth 
corrupt, and where thieves do not break through 
nor steal." And since his treasure is in heaven, 
there his heart is also ; and while he lives and works 
on earth, his " conversation is in heaven." 

But why should it be so } Why is this living 
above the world so essential a part of the Christian 
life .'^ Because thus only can we live in communion 



ASCENSION DAY. 



U3 



with our ascended Lord. He is gone up into 
heaven itself " to appear in the presence of God for 
us and if we would dwell in heart with Him, we 
must rise in heart above the world, even as He has 
risen above it in person : If ye then be risen with 
Christ, seek those things which are above, where 
Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.'' The soul 
must seek its Saviour in the courts of heaven ; it 
must knock at the everlasting doors ; ay, and pene- 
trate within the very holy of holies, that the king 
of glory may be revealed, Christ is no longer on 
earth. The mansions of the skies have opened to 
receive their Lord, and there He must be sought 
by His faithful people. The command once given, 
''Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended," 
becomes a no less imperative injunction, "Touch 
me for I am ascended ; " by faith, by prayer, the 
soul may reach up to the exalted Son ; and find 
that His absence in the flesh is but the pledge and 
assurance of His everlasting presence by His Spirit. 

Sin must ever tend to interrupt our communion 
with our Saviour. The effect of sin must ever be 
to rust the link of the chain that binds us to Him. 
If we would know Him and all ''the power of His 
resurrection," if we would hold a free and blessed 
intercourse with the Son of God, we must wean our 
affections from the things of earth ; we must draw 
off our hearts from the allurements and induce- 
ments of the world, and strive eagerly and earnestly 
after the attainments of that " mind which was in 
Christ Jesus," and that spiritual ennobling life, 

I 



114 



ASCENSION DAY. 



whose chief feature and characteristic is this, that 
its " conversation is in heaven." 

Such, then, are the leading points of that inner 
Hfe, which, by the gradual development of God's 
grace within him, the true Christian is enabled to 
lead even here on earth. We have to notice in the 
second place the substance of the hope which sus- 
tains him, and stimulates him to endure unto the 
end." " Our conversation (writes St. Paul) is in 
heaven, from whence, also, we look for the Saviour, 
the Lord Jesus Christ : who shall change our vile 
body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glo- 
rious body, according to the working, whereby He 
is able even to subdue all things unto Himself" 
The Christian's hope is therefore twofold. He 
looks for the revelation of his Saviour, and for the 
glorification of his own body. 

And first he waits for the further manifestation of 
his Saviour. The same heavenly voices that rebuked 
the sorrowing eleven for gazing up into heaven," 
also administered a word of cheering comfort, by 
reminding them thus : " This same Jesus, which is 
taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in 
like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven." 
And this hope sustained them in the midst of their 
hardships, and labours, and afflictions. As the hour 
of St. Paul's dissolution drew near, he was able to 
look onward with joyful assurance beyond the 
grave, confident that there was taid up for him " a 
crown of righteousness," and that his labour would 
not be " in vain in the Lord." 



ASCENSION DAY. 



It would seem from expressions which occur in the 
writings of the apostles, that they expected a speedy 
accomplishment of their Master's promise to come 
again," And they looked forward with joy un- 
speakable to being so soon re-united to Him whom 
they had loved with so deep and sacred affection. 
Years have since rolled on, and He has not yet ap- 
peared ; but still the hope of His coming is a bright 
and joyful hope to His people. Each and all of 
the saints now at rest can testify how on earth 
they thought of their Redeemer's manifestation 
among them, and loved to lean upon the thought ; 
and how they pictured to themselves the glory of 
that revelation, and the passing delight of seeing 
face to face Him who had been the very object and 
aim of their whole heart and life. The Christian 
" looks for the Saviour." His attitude is that of 
the apostles on Olivet ; save that his daily duties 
are not neglected nor interrupted, but rather quick- 
ened and spiritualized, by his gazing up into hea- 
ven ; and remembering that, when his Saviour shall 
appear, he will be called to account for his works, 
he strives to accomplish the glory of God in and by 
all he does. 

And further : the Saviour for whom he looks is 
none other than ^'the Lord Jesus Christ," the co- 
equal Son, the King of Kings. He expects the re- 
velation of Him whom he has ever worshipped ; 
Him at whose footstool he has been wont to pay 
adoring homage. "Saviour" is his "Lord." He 
who " was made a little lower than the angels, for the 



ASCENSION DAY, 



suffering of death," has been " crowned with glory 
and honour." And God has highly exalted Him, 
and given Him a name which is above every name." 
Jesus of Nazareth has been received up into the 
heaven of heavens ; and the gates of Paradise 
have lifted up their heads to admit the Lord s 
Anointed. This twofold character of the ascended 
Christ is expressed in another passage, " Him hath 
God exalted to be a Prince and Saviour^ 

At His ascension, Christ assumed the headship 
of the universal church, and became Lord of all by 
virtue of His sovereign power. " All power (He 
says) is given unto me in heaven and in earth." And 
yet He is the Saviour too ; still He pleads the 
merits of His own precious death : still He holds 
out the gracious offer of pardon and peace ; still 
from His throne in heaven He cries to every peni- 
tent and contrite sinner, Look unto Me and be ye 
saved." And He it is for whom the Christian waits; 
not dreading His manifestation, for he can say, " I 
know whom I have believed," and he longs to see 
his Master as He is. He looks forward to His 
coming, because he believes that then there will be 
an end of all his sorrows and his trials, his tempta- 
tions, and his sins. He takes comfort in the antici- 
pation, because he feels that it will be a time of 
rejoicing and of triumph to the pilgrim church. 

But there is another reason which tends to give 
joy to the believer when he thinks of the revelation 
of his Lord. He likes to dwell in thought upon the 
event which will be consequent upon it. He waits 



ASCENSION DAY, 



117 



for the day when himself shall be glorified. Now 
he thinks of his exalted Saviour ; at that day, he 
himself shall be exalted. Now, he can only ascend 
heavenwards in heart and mind ; then, he shall 
ascend as Christ ascended, even in the flesh. He 
looks " for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ ; who 
shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned 
like unto His glorious body." Think of the amazing 
mystery contained in these few words. They tell 
us that our frail human bodies shall be changed ; 
and not only changed, but glorified ; and not only 
glorified, but made like unto Christ's body. Oh ! 
unutterable wonder, that these our mortal frames, 
subject to every form of weakness, disease, and 
death, shall one day be transformed into deathless, 
undecaying, everlasting bodies ! that a time is 
coming when " this mortal shall " put on immor- 
tality and the " earthly house of this tabernacle," 
shall be renewed, exalted, and ennobled. Behold 
(writes the apostle), " I show you a mystery ; we shall 
not all sleep, but we shall all be changed changed 
from corruption to incorruption ; changed from 
weakness to power ; changed from dishonour to 
glory. The manner and method of that change 
who shall say How it shall be, and when it shall 
be, we may not know. Surely it is sufficient to be 
told that we shall be made like unto Christ And 
this brings out an important truth concerning the 
resurrection of our Lord. It proves to us that He 
lives in heaven, not as a spirit, but in human form. 
Our bodies are to be made " like unto His glorious 



ii8 



ASCENSION DAY, 



bodyT St. Paul speaks of the Saviour's body many- 
years after He had ascended. And so too spake 
the angels when they said, "This same Jesus, which 
is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in 
like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven 
that is in bodily form. When He comes to judg- 
ment, He will come as man. " The Father judgeth 
no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the 
Son : and hath given Him authority to execute 
judgment also, because He is the Son of Man!' 
This first : and then there is another truth involved 
in the words. For since we are to be made like 
unto Him, it follows that as He is so we shall be ; 
and so His resurrection was the type and earnest 
of our own. He rose with the same body that died ; 
but that body was glorified y endued with such 
honour as it had not known before. And so will it 
be with us. The great change that these our vile 
bodies are to undergo is a change from mortal to 
immortal. In this life, subject to innumerable ills, 
accident, danger, languishing sickness, painful 
death ; but in the life to come subject to no death, 
no pain, no disease, no discomfort. And then our 
state in our outward circumstances will be different 
as well as in ourselves. Here, much that befalls us 
is uncertain, changeable, shortlived ; there, all will 
be sure, everlasting, unlimited. Here, most of our 
pleasures are tempered with something that blunts 
the keenness of our delight ; there, shall there be 
nought fo// pleasure, full, satisfying, complete. Here, 
we are swayed to and fro by apprehensions, doubts, 



ASCENSION DAY, 



119 



fears, and anxieties ; there, we shall know the 
fulness of the eternal rest ; rest in body ; rest in 
mind ; rest in spirit. 

Such thoughts as these we might long pursue ; 
but there are one or two other points connected 
with the apostle's words which we must not overlook. 

We have said that the future revelation of the 
Saviour, and the consequent glorification of the 
mortal body is the Christian's hope. None but he 
can dwell with comfort on the thought. And why } 
The verses before us suggest the reason. Christ 
will return from heaven ; from thence ''we look for 
the Saviour;" and how can a man be looking 
heavenwards and fixing his hopes on heaven, who 
is not striving to live the heavenly life } Those 
only whose '' conversation is in heaven," are really 
waiting and looking for Jesus. Those only who 
are trying to attain unto His mind and His spotless 
life are really expecting and hoping for their Lord's 
return. Before He ascended on high these were 
His words to His chosen disciples, I have given 
you an example ;" that example must be followed. 
His blessed steps must be carefully and prayerfully 
trodden in ; for thus alone may we hope that our 
lives shall be conformed to His life ; and ourselves 
made like unto Him. 

Again, if we be not made like unto Him here, we 
may not hope to be made like unto Him hereafter. 
The transformation of the heart and mind must be 
daily going on now if we would have our bodies 
transformed to Christ's own likeness at that day. 



I20 



ASCENSION DA K 



Even in this life we must in some degree bear the 
image of the heavenly/' and be stamped with the 
image and superscription of the crucified. We 
must follow Him in humiliation, if we would be 
with Him in glory ; we must after Him bear the 
cross if we would in His presence wear the crown. 
Hear St. Peter's words to the tried and afflicted 
servants of the Most High, Rejoice, inasmuch 
as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings ; that, 
when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad 
also with exceeding joy." And St. Paul, writing 
to a Christian bishop, says, " It is a faithful saying, 
for if we be dead with Him, we shall also live with 
Him ; if we suffer we shall also reign with Him." 
Only let us strive to glorify Christ with all our 
heart and all our energy 7tow^ and we may rest 
assured that when, at the last great day, we find 
ourselves reunited to our human bodies. He will 
glorify lis. And though of ourselves we can do 
nothing to make ourselves like unto Christ, yet He 
will graciously help us, and by the same power 
which shall one day quicken and exalt our sleeping 
bodies, will He now cleanse and sanctify our hearts. 

For, lastly, is it not written that the glorification 
of our bodies shall be accomplished according to 
the working whereby He is able even to subdue all 
things unto Himself.^" Christ, our risen Lord, is 
omnipotent. Under His governance are all things 
both in heaven and earth ; and all the energies of 
the body, and all the faculties of the mind are 
ruled and swayed by Him. Hov/ blessed to think. 



ASCENSION DAY, 



121 



when some sore temptation has well nigh ex- 
hausted the feeble resistance of our faith, that we 
have a Saviour who ^^is able even to subdue all 
things unto Himself!" For when we feel the 
dread power of sin warring against our better 
feelings, and threatening to lead us into captivity 
to its law, there is one at hand ever ready to help, 
ever ''able to subdue." One before whom Satan 
has quailed, and from whom he has once and again 
fled baffled and discomfited, never more to usurp 
dominion over the souls of the redeemed. In the 
wilderness of temptation, on the cross of Calvary, 
from the depths of the grave, the Lord has triumphed 
gloriously. '' For this purpose the Son of God was 
manifested, that He might destroy the works of the 
devil." And while kings and potentates, and all 
the great ones of the earth are governed by Him 
alone, and, in all they attempt and achieve, do but 
obey the mandate of His sovereign power. He con- 
descends to set up His throne in the heart of the 
humblest and weakest of His servants ; to fight in 
them and with them, and for them, against all 
their spiritual enemies, and to prepare them by the 
workings of His grace now for the inheritance of 
His glory hereafter. Our Lord will fight with us 
against sin, and work with us in our strivings after 
holiness ; but we have no warrant for expecting 
Him either to work or to strive without us. If we 
seek His help in our conflict with temptation, there 
must be shown some proof of our sincerity by an 
earnest and honest endeavour on our own part to 



122 ASCENSION DAY. 

withstand the opposing influence. How often do 
we yield to temptation not so much because it is 
strongy as because we will not be strong ; because 
we will not avail ourselves of the strength offered 
to us ; will not put on the armour which can protect 
us. How strange it is, and yet how consistent with 
the pride and stubbornness of our natural heart, 
that, though we have again and again proved the 
exceeding weakness of our own strength, we still 
continue to trust in it, and lean upon it, and reject 
that which alone deserves the name of strength, 
that mighty power which is able even to subdue 
all things." "The last enemy that shall be de- 
stroyed is death." When "the end" shall come, 
and the " vile " bodies of the saints shall be changed 
and glorified, how will they look back upon tempta- 
tions overcome, and sins renounced, and evil desires 
subdued, and say with the Hebrew psalmist of old, 
"Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy 
name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's 
sake." 



SERMON IX. 



Whitsunday, i86i. 

And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another 
comforter, that He may abide with you for ever ; even the 
Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it 
seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him ; but ye know Him, for 
He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. — John xiv. i6, 17, 

T was not long the bereaved apostles 
had to wait for the fulfilment of their 
Master's promise. Little more than a 
week ago they looked steadfastly 
toward heaven as He went up," and gradually 
realized their desolation, their loneliness, their own 
helplessness and weakness. To-day we find them 
endued with power from on high," receiving the 
promise of the Father," being baptized with the 
baptism of the Spirit of God. That Holy Ghost 
who had once witnessed with the water of the 
Jordan, when He descended like a dove upon their 
Lord^ comes down to-day upon thein in power and 
majesty as the Spirit of conviction, the Spirit of 
love, "the Spirit of truth." And His mission was 
of a two-fold character. He came, on the one 
hand, as a Spirit of God's judgmerit to reprove the 




124 



WHITSUNDA K 



world'' and on the other hand as a Spirit of God's 
mercy to comfort the church. To-day we hail the 
arrival of that other Comforter who is to teach, and 
minister to, the Christian's soul. In proportion 
then as we feel the comfort of such a messenger to 
our own selves, and long for His gracious agency to 
be exerted in our own hearts, shall we welcome the 
hallowed associations of this season. 

Let us see if there be not something in the 
text which may increase and extend our narrow 
views of the Spirit's office, purpose, and ministra- 
tion. 

In the first place, observe that the gift of the 
Spirit is the fruit of the Saviour's intercession, " I 
will pray the Father." Jesus, whom we have lately 
watched ascending up into heaven, is occupied as 
man's mediator, pleading for His people before the 
throne of grace. Just as He used to pray for His 
disciples while He was yet on earth, so we believe 
He is now praying for each one of us, and pleading 
the efficacy of His own all-prevailing merits at the 
inner mercy seat of heaven. Yes ; Christ prays 
for us. Think of that when tempted to sin against 
Him ; when disinclined to do something which 
conscience tells you is your duty. Think that 
Christ is praying that you may not be led into 
temptation, but may be delivered from evil ; and 
will you dare do that which your risen Saviour is 
actually praying that you may not do t Again ; 
the fact that the gift of the Spirit is the result of 
Jesus' intercession ought to endear His mission to 



WHITSUNDA K 



125 



the church. It ought to make Him still more 
welcome to the believer's soul. He comes direct 
from our covenant God in Christ. He is sent by 
the Father at the special request of the Son. The 
Son, who died to redeem us, and rose again to 
justify us, prays that the Holy Spirit may be sent 
to sanctify the hearts of those whom He has pur- 
chased with His blood, and to prepare them for the 
kingdom which He is now making ready for them. 
He prays to the Father, to His Father and t/ietr 
Father, that " the Spirit of truth " may be shed 
abroad" in their hearts, to guide them '^into all 
truth;" and to humble, melt, and renew them. 
Oh ! how careful should we be lest we counteract 
the prayers which Jesus Himself offers for us, lest 
by our persistence in known sin, we wilfully ^^grieve" 
and quench" that Holy Spirit whom He has sent 
down to elevate and purify our affections, to 
strengthen us in the hour of temptation, and to 
make us meet for everlasting glory. 

Observe, secondly, that the Spirit's mission is a 
divine mission ; " I will pray the Father, and He 
shall give you another Comforter." He comes direct 
from God ; sent by our heavenly Father. He 
is a messenger sent us by God. The Almighty 
has chosen to hold intercourse with man by means 
of several different mediums. He does so by His 
word, by His providence, and by His Spirit And 
this Spirit is the very essence of the godhead, " pro- 
ceeding (as we are taught) from the Father and 
the Son." Not only does He exercise a divine 



126 



WHITSUNDAY. 



mission^ but He is Himself a divine person. So that 
here we have the three persons of the blessed 
Trinity brought together before our eyes. The 
Son prays to the Father, and the Holy Spirit is 
sent in answer to His prayers. Remember, then, 
whenever we resist the Spirit's influence, we " fight 
against God," whenever we ''kick against the 
pricks" of the Spirit's convincing persuasion, we are 
taking up arms against ''very God," whenever 
we turn away our ears from the Spirit's voice we 
are in reality driving God out of our hearts. And 
remember, too, that He has said in His own in- 
spired word, " Woe unto him that striveth with his 
Maker!" 

And now observe the brief, but emphatic descrip- 
tion of the Spirit's office, " He shall give you another 
Comforter." He was to take the place of Jesus in 
the souls of the disciples, to fill up the blank which 
Christ's absence had made. They had hitherto had 
their beloved master to whom they could refer 
every little difficulty, who would console them in 
every affliction, and counsel them on every occa- 
sion ; but now, in this, the heaviest of all their 
sorrows, they were to look to ^'another Comforter." 
No sooner is Jesus taken from them, than in His 
gracious sympathy He sends them one to cheer 
them, to comfort them, and to assist them in their 
duties and exertions. Nor was it any chance friend 
who was thus sent to console their hearts with the 
ordinary and common-place ministration of human 
sympathy. It was one who well knew the secrets 



WHITSUNDA V. 



127 



of their hearts, who felt for them, and felt with 
them ; one who could enter into the bitter pangs 
and sorrows of their desolate souls, and knew how 
to comfort them. And how did He comfort them ? 
By reminding them of their Master's words, by- 
bringing all things to their remembrance whatso- 
ever He had said unto them ; by testifying to their 
spirits of Jesus ; by teaching them to do all things 
that their Lord would have them do. 

Nor again was His to be a temporary consolation. 
His special prerogative was to abide with the^n for 
ever. Ever and anon was that gentle voice of 
heavenly sympathy heard, its silvery accents falling 
gratefully on the bereaved and desolate hearts of 
that little band of mourners. Their Lord's parting 
words had been, Lo, I am with you alway, even 
unto the end of the world;" and now He sends 
them a Comforter, *'that He may abide wdth them 
for ever" likewise. Have you tasted the draughts 
of this world's enticements, and found out their 
bitterness 1 Have you tried the specious sympathy 
of this world's comforters, and found the hollow- 
ness of their consolations t Do you thirst for some 
other comforter, who may not be liable to the 
changes and vicissitudes of life, and the alterations 
and estrangements of time } In God the Holy 
Ghost you have a wellspring of undying, unfading 
comfort. The heart which has chosen Him as 
its portion shall never be in want of true sympathy, 
shall never feel the need of something else which it 
longs for, but has not got : for while He comforts 



128 



WHITSUNDA V. 



the soul with the depths of His sympathy, at the 
same time He satisfies it with the fulness of His 
grace ; and sheds a holy, heavenly radiance over 
the otherwise dark and dreary path of sorrow, be- 
reavement, and trial. 

Consider, in the next place, the character of this 
blessed ministering Spirit. He is *^the Spirit of 
truthy' so called for three reasons. First, as he 
proceeds from the God of truth, from that "Father 
of lights with whom is no variableness^ neither 
shadow of turning.'' He is prayed for by Him who 
is the way, the truths and the life;'' who is **the 
Amen," the faithful and true witness. And then 
again, He is the "Spirit of truths' because He is 
the only Spirit who can minister true comfort 
and true guidance to the church. All other 
spirits are false. " Beloved, believe not every Spirit 
(says St. John) but try the spirits whether they 
are of God." He is the only Spirit who has been 
truly authorized, and commissioned on this mes- 
sage of love from God to man ; the only Spirit 
who exercises a true and constant office. And, 
thirdly, he is " the Spirit of truths' because it is His 
peculiar work to " guide into all truth," to instruct 
the church in "the unsearchable riches of Christ ;" 
to open their eyes, and bring home to their hearts 
the saving truths of the Gospel " in power — and in 
much assurance." Those persons therefore who 
wilfully allow themselves to practise falsehood and 
deception, of word and deed, " grieve " the Spirit 
no less than those who commit other heinous sins. 



WHITSUNDA V. 



129 



Those whose tongues are stained with " deceit and 
guile," specially incur His displeasure ; for such 
persons wilfully involve themselves in the crime of 
Ananias and his wife, to whom St. Peter said, 

Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, 
to tempt the Spirit of the Lord." 

Furthermore, this precious gift of the Holy Spirit 
is vouchsafed to the true believer alone, " Whom 
the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, 
neither knoweth Him ; but ye know Him." What 
should the world know of His gracious influence ? 
The world has never received the Holy Ghost ;" 
nay, it would seem that it had " not so much as 
heard whether there be any Holy Ghost." The 
world seeth Him not ;" knows not, and cares not, 
when and where to look for the traces of the Spirit. 
The world walks by sights but yet is blind to the 
things of the inner life. And though her children 

are in their generation wiser than the children 
of light ;" still, with all their boasted wisdom, 
they have not that knowledge whose possession 
makes the very least in the kingdom of heaven"- 
greater than they. They know not the inward 
v/orking of the Spirit in their hearts. They know 
not what it is to resist temptation ; to follow after 
purity and holiness. Their life is one continued 
grief to the Spirit ; one protracted act of quenching 
the living life-giving spark, which witnessed with 
the water of their baptism, and might have been 
fanned into a bright and glowing flame of holy 
devotion and love. The world seeth Him not" 

K 



I30 



WHITSUNDA Y, 



in the life and conduct of others^ " neither knoweth 
Him/' from the testimony of its ow7t heart. But/' 
believers, *'ye know Him." If you really are be- 
lievers at all, you must know Him." If you are 
Christians in deed, as well as in profession, you must 
" know him /' for you must have felt the gentle 
workings of His power, the gracious energy of His 
grace in your own regenerate hearts. And if you 
would have a sure and certain proof oith^ quicken- 
ing power of His Holy Spirit, have it from your 
Saviour s own mouth, " ye know Him ; for He 
dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." Dwelleth 
with you," as your constant companion, friend, and 
guardian. He is an inmate of your house, your 
silent chamber. If you are a Christian indeed, then 
He is never away from you. When you kneel 
down to pray, He is there to teach you how to 
pray, and what to pray for. When you open God's 
word, He is at hand to bless the reading of the reve- 
lation of truth ; , and to cause it to nourish and 
strengthen your soul. When you are in God's 
sanctuary, the Spirit is present to water the seed 
sown with the dew of His blessing ; so that it shall 
take deep root in your heart, and bring forth fruit 
unto everlasting life. Wherever you go, whatever 
you do, say, or think of, by night and by day, He 
dwelleth with you." But there is more than this. 
Our Saviour says, ''And shall be in you." Not 
only around the believer, to guard him from dangers 
ivithout ; but in him, to counteract the force of 
temptation inherent in his own natural inclination ; 



WHITSUNDA V. 



and to cherish, and foster his soul in all virtuous and 
godly living. He dwells in his heart, as in a pure 
and holy temple, made meet for His constant ha~ 
bitation. He manifests Himself to the soul in 
love, joy, peace," such as the world knows nothing 
of. He washes, sanctifies, and justifies them who 
are called by the name of the Lord Jesus ; and fits 
and prepares them for Heaven. He is above them, 
around them, and within them. He makes Himself 
one with them ; and incorporates Himself into their 
bodies, which thus become the temple of the living 
God." 

Such is the character and office of Him whose 
miraculous descent on the early church we this day 
are led to dwell upon. But- have we been the 
objects of any such quickening and reviving power ? 
We have this day been celebrating our Pentecost ; 
keeping the feast around the altar of sacramental 
love. Jesus has this day brought us to His ban- 
quetting-house ; and fed us with the living bread 
which came down from heaven." But unless the 
Spirit has been present in blessing, what benefit 
have we received to our souls ? Unless God the 
Comforter has been, and is now, dwelling wil/i 
and m us, reproving us, of sin, and of righteous- 
ness, and of judgment," convincing, encouraging, 
and guiding us, what profit is there in the word ? 
What in the ordinances of our religion ? 

Oh ! that our dull, cold hearts may have been 
this day touched with a live coal from ofi" God's 
altar, and tuned to a higher, and purer, and holier 



132 



WHITSUNDA F. 



strain of praise and thanksgiving ! Oh ! that we 
may have been imperceptibly revived and strength- 
ened by His grace, and endued with hving "power 
from on high!" Let us ever pray most earnestly 
to the Father, through the merits of the Son, that 
the Holy Ghost may be shed abroad abundantly in 
our hearts ; and that we may recognize and value 
His gracious influence. 

" The Spirit must stir the darkling deep ; 

The Dove must settle on the Cross : 
Else we should all sin on, or sleep 

With Christ in sight, turning our gain to loss." 



SERMON X. 



The False Way, i86i. 

" There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the 
end thereof are the ways of death," — Proverbs xiv. 1 2. 

O one, who has remarked the high moral 
' standard of this Book of Proverbs, and 
the equally high religious tendency of 
its precepts and maxims, will be likely 
to believe that these words refer to what is generally 
called wilful sin, either in the view which the true 
believer takes of it, or in the light in which it is re- 
garded by its practised votaries. No Christian who 
is endowed with any ordinary degree of common 
sense and reflection can possibly convince himself 
that ^^the way of the wicked" and '^the path of evil 
men" may, under any circumstances, be called, or 
seem to be, a right way;'* and we can hardly 
imagine that the habitual sinner, who lives avowedly 
without God in the world," and gives himself up 
unreservedly to follow the dictates of his own un- 
sanctified heart, living in open enmity to God, can 
do so on any governing principle. We cannot 
believe that the sinner thinks it right to be a sinner; 
that the drunkards, or the profane, or the immoral, 




134 



THE FALSE WA V. 



believe that they ought to be such ; much less that 
those, who really love and serve God, can look upon 
the way of sin, except with aversion and disgust 
No life of constant impiety, habitual wickedness^ 
and aggravated guilt can be said to "seem right 
unto a man : and no inspired writer of the word of 
God, to say nothing of a man of such pre-eminent 
wisdom and intelligence as Solomon, could have 
put forth a statement involving so self-evident a 
contradiction. 

But then, again, the same reasoning power which 
compels us to reject so absurd and unscriptural an 
interpretation of the verse before us, will oblige us 
to confess, as the consequence of our Christian faith, 
that if the way of sin cannot possibly be said to 
" seem right unto a man," no way but the way of 
holiness can answer to this description. We mus.t 
admit that that way only which is the way of 
righteousness can seem to be what we call " right." 
But if so, how, it may be asked, does that way end 
in "the ways of death?'' How can that strait and 
narrow way of religion, which, we are told, "leadeth 
unto life," so deceive and beguile the traveller upon 
it, as to bring him at last not into the promised rest 
and glory of heaven, but into "the blackness of 
darkness for ever ?" The answer to these questions 
seems to form the pith and kernel of the wise man's 
maxim " There is a way which seemeth right unto 
a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." 

The class of persons of whom Solomon was 
thinking, when he wrote this, appears to be that 



THE FALSE WA Y, 



135 



large, too large, mass of self deceivers, who, living 
within the bounds of the catholic church, and eating 
of the children's bread, are yet neither growing in 
grace, nor bringing forth much fruit unto holiness. 

We do not include the hypocrite in this catalogue ; 
for his object is to deceive others, whilst he is per- 
fectly alive to his own duplicity and pretence. We 
are speaking rather of men who are doing what 
they think to be right, not for the sake of the praise 
of their fellows, but because they think it right and 
proper to do so, and, m the thinking, deceive them- 
selves. Such persons were the superstitious devotees 
of the old heathen world ; the infatuated worship- 
pers of Baalim and Ashtaroth, Mars and Jupiter : 
such were the fanatics and enthusiasts of a later 
age ; men, who like Saul of Tarsus, made havock 
of the church," thinking to do God service : or, later 
still, the men who kindled the fierce fires of the 
Reformation : and men too who are to be found in 
abundance in the church of the present day, the 
self-righteous and the formalists. Passing over, how- 
ever, the former of these, let us turn our thoughts 
for a few moments to the character of the latter 
class, of which we may everywhere see numerous 
instances, observing the cause and result of their 
self-deception, and taking timely warning lest we 
fall into their snares, and incur their condemnation. 

How many there are who think that religion con- 
sists not in substance but in shadow ! who think 
that the "outward and visible sign " of holiness com- 
pletely outshines the ''inward and spiritual grace 



136 



THE FALSE VVA Y. 



and that regularity of worship, and a strict com- 
phance with the requirements of the church, is 
enough to save their souls from death ; men who 
wish earnestly to do what is right and seem.ly ; who 
would not for the world be called mean, or unjust, 
or dishonest ; who have a certain degree of interest 
in their religion, and find their worship not a burden, 
but a delight ; men who are not far from the King- 
dom of God," but yet stop a little too soon, and 
therefore are not heart and soul in it. And why is 
this ? Because they lose sight of what is withiUy so 
intent are they on what is without ; they are so oc- 
cupied with the shell of the nut, that they forget to 
look for the kernel; they are so taken up with 
observing the beauty and regularity of the comb, 
that they think not of the sweetness of the honey. 

Too many resemble those whom the Apostle 
describes as ^^having a form of godliness, but denying 
the power thereof;'' ready enough to comply with 
the ceremonial part of God's worship, but heedless 
of that inner life which can alone make the other 
either acceptable to God, or profitable to the soul. 
Men are too apt to forget that ordinances are but 
means of grace, not grace itself ; that they are only 
instruments and helps towards leading a godly life, 
not the life itself. And hence it is that men go on 
through life attentive, it may be, to the very letter 
of the law, but totally regardless of the spirit^ 
thinking that compliance with forms is all that is 
necessary ; and that the practical life is, after all, 
rather a work of supererogation than a duty in- 



THE FALSE WA V. 



137 



cumbent on ''every one that nameth the name of 
Christ." 

This is one class. Then there are the proud, self- 
righteous, the Pharisees of the Christian church : 
men who, while they fast twice in the week, and 
give tithes of all that they possess," think that they 
mus^ be safe : who believe that if they do not go 
backward, they are going forward ; that if they are 
not scattering from Christ, they must be gathering 
with Him. These are they who are ever stifling 
their consciences with the thought that they are 
better than others ; that they do more for God's 
honour than many of their fellows ; they appear re- 
gularly in church, and at the Lord's table ; they 
subscribe to public charities according to their 
means ; they observe the sabbath-day scrupulously 
and strictly; and therefore there cannot be very 
much amiss in them. They do not want, they say, 
the good opinion of others : they do not think merely 
whether they shall be ''seen of men:" they know 
what is right, and they do it as far as they can ; and 
nobody can be altogether perfect. This is their 
argument. And, no doubt, their neighbours think 
that they are really righteous : they see them on 
Sundays acting with the same devotion and appa- 
rent fervency as others around them exhibit ; and 
they account them upright. God-fearing and re- 
ligious. But while "man looketh on the outward 
appearance, the Lord looketh on the heart;" and if 
men bore more constantly in mind the presence of 
a heart-searching God, they would be more careful 



I3S 



THE FALSE WA Y, 



and watchful as to their secret thoughts and imagi- 
nations. Depend upon it God thinks more of 
motive than action ; He cares more why than how 
a thing is done ; the principle which governs has 
more weight with Him than that to which it leads. 
And so, while men are flattering themselves that 
they are straightforward and strict observers of 
the requirements of their religion, and thinking, 
perhaps, what an exemplary life they are leading 
in the world, the Lord looks down from heaven, and 
marks the pride and satisfaction of their hearts ; and 
marks too the absence, amid all the outward religion, 
of that ^'one thing needful," without which no sacri- 
fice can be accepted of God : He marks the cold, 
stiff prayer of the formalist, who is ever thinking of 
the words he uses, but seldom of the meaning they 
convey : He marks the chapter after chapter of His 
own saving word read day by day, but never put 
in practice; He marks the sermons listened to week 
after week, but whose word of admonition is never 
carried out in the daily life ; He marks too the 
wasted seasons of special communion with Him— 
the bread and wine received, but Christ never fed 
upon by faith: and all this He records in that dread 
book of reckoning one day to be proclaimed before 
a listening world, to the eternal shame of those self- 
deceived ones, who had all along contented them- 
selves with the Christian namey but thought nothing 
of their Christian responsibilities. 

Some things we do in a right way, but not from 
right motives ; and some things from good motives, 



THE FALSE WA V. 



139 



but not in a right way. This is often the case in 
our rehgious duties. We worship God because we 
beheve it to be our duty to do so : we beheve in 
His existence, His power over us, His love towards 
us: we pray to Him because he has bidden us 
pray : we read His word because we regard it as a 
special message from Him: and yet all these things, 
so right and praiseworthy as they are, we are very 
apt to do in a wrong and self-deceiving way. Our 
prayers are cold and heartless ; they lack the burning 
desire and expectation which ought to shine in 
them : sometimes we even pray for what we under- 
stand not ; or for that which, if bestowed, would 
vex and distress us. We lose sight too often of 
that inward life which must be in every earnest 
candidate for heaven. We think too little of our 
spiritical condition ; of the view which God takes of 
us. We are so intent upon our outward deport- 
ment and bearing in our social relationships, that 
we forget altogether, or else do not sufficiently 
remember, the presence of One who "trieth the 
hearts,'' We do not, for the most part, act up to 
our faith ; that is to say, there is much more real 
religion in our theory than in our practice. Ours is 
apt to be a doctrinal rather than a practical religion. 
We believe a great deal ; but our belief, in many 
cases, has no direct tendency and influence on our 
lives. We believe that ours is an omniscient God ; 
but how seldom do we act as if we knew that 
He was reading every thought, and testing every 
motive ! We believe in an all-seeing God ; but how 



140 



THE 'FALSE WAY. 



many things we do as if we quite forgot His pre- 
sence! We believe in a judgment to come; but are 
we not daily and hourly doing many things which, 
we know, will be brought forward against us when 
we shall stand at the bar of God ? 

A heartless service cannot be a satisfying, peace- 
ful, comforting reality to any one. This people 
honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far 
from me." And what is the consequence 1 In 
vain they do worship me." Now, as ever, is that 
still small voice sounding in the ears of the sons of 
men, " My son, give me thine heartr It is quite 
worth while to observe how this heart-service is the 
constant burden of scripture teaching, in the Old 
no less than in the New Testament. By degrees, 
as the spirit of genuine devotion waxed cold in the 
breast of the chosen people, they were made alive 
to this great standard truth, that the form is most 
excellent and most important as a means to an end, 
but that end is separate and distinct. In one verse 
in the Psalms we hear the voice of God asking, 

Thinkest thou that I will eat bull's flesh, and drink 
the blood of goats V There is the formal service. 
And in the next verse He says, " Offer unto God 
thanksgiving, and pay thy vows unto the Most 
Highest. And call upon me in the time of trouble." 
There is the practical devotion ; the spirit of holi- 
ness which attributes every blessing to a Father's 
hand ; and, in the dark and cloudy day, can look 
up for a Father's loving support. And so again, 
Samuel said to Saul, " Behold, to obey is better 
than sacrifice.'* He did not deprecate nor condemn 



THE FALSE WA K 



141 



the form ; but he held up as a higher and a more ex- 
cellent thing that which the due observance of the 
form ought to lead to, constraining and restraining 
love and obedience. The ceremonial part of our 
service is given us to help our devotion. Our 
worship being essentially an act of faith, paid as it 
is to a God whom we cannot see nor comprehend, 
is thus assisted by the tangible substance of an 
outward form; and our spirits guided* and aided in 
their devotion. But then these two are distinct ; 
not one and the same ; connected just as the outer 
covering of the bud is connected with the tiny 
flower within it ; as the shell is connected with the 
kernel ; and no more. It protests and keeps alive 
a spirit of holiness, and thus is a blessed means of 
leading and supporting our steps as we journey on 
towards heaven. But, while men persist in main- 
taining the one without the other, and thinking that 
religion is merely a shortlived, sentimental enthu- 
siasm, produced on an excitable and ardent temper- 
ament ; or else a cold, stiff, repulsive asperity, a 
system of rigid and conventional observances, and 
that only; while men who really love their religion^ 
and love its duties and requirements, think they are 
doing enough by attending to the moral and cere- 
monial duties of the law of God, without taking 
up their cross daily," and following Christ through 
the deep dark valley of humiliation and trial, theirs 
must still be that treacherous " way which seemeth 
right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways 
of death.'^ 

And this brings us to notice, secondly, the fearful 



142 



THE FALSE WA V. 



results of such a misguided and mistaken life ; to 
think, if we can, of the horror-stricken looks of those 
who, after fancying themselves safe in the strait 
and narrow way," find at the last, when too late, that 
they have been pursuing but a misty phantom, 
which has ever eluded their grasp, but led them on 
through a long life-time of empty unspiritual religion, 
till it leaves them tottering on the very verge of 
hell. Or else, just at the close of life, they are 
suddenly awakened to a sense of their danger, and 
try to rouse themselves to make amends for their 
folly ; but their spirits are deadened and chilled 
within them ; their souls, fed only with dry husks, 
have so long lacked real, life-giving nourishment, 
that they have drooped and pined and withered 
away ; the vital spark of heavenly life has been 
suffered to die out of its own accord ; and the 
formalist, and the self-righteous man are alike left to 
all the united terrors of a double death, the victims 
of their own blind infatuation. All their days have 
they deceived themselves with the thought of their 
own uprightness and goodness before God : and 
now, when they come to die, they find themselves 
condemned with the chief of sinners to the dark 
gloom of the infernal world, where the darkness is 
only relieved by the hideous glare of the fire that 
never shall be quenched." 

From how many a hopeless death-bed does the 
same wail arise ; morality has been thought the 
" one thing needful" through life ; avoiding gross 
social sins has been supposed to constitute a holy 



THE FALSE IVA V, 



life ; a character which, with but one more ingredi- 
ent, might have been well pleasing unto God, has 
been suffered to be Godless and soulless ; and 
down into the grave sinks that wretched self-de- 
ceiver, " of all men most miserable." 

But then we have a thought even from the con- 
templation of such a picture as this to comfort us ; 
it need not be so. It is not eve7y way which seems 
right that ends in the ways of death. We need 
not^ we must not walk in the way which does so. 
Let it be our great and prominent business in life 
to cultivate that germ of true godliness which can 
make our days on earth really happy, and which 
can alone give us comfort and lasting peace in the 
hour of death. We should try to keep up a living 
habit of devotion : not only at set times and in set 
places, but a heart ever tuned to the praise of 
God, ever bursting forth in some silent prayer to 
Him. It is only when we try to dwell in Christ 
that we can expect Him to dwell in us: and yet we 
must be ever asking Him to dwell in us, that we 
may be enabled to dwell in Him as we ought to 
do. If He hears us day after day asking for grace, 
but never availing ourselves of the grace given ; 
daily praying "Give us our daily bread," but impa- 
tient and murmuring if it be more bitter than we 
expected; how can we venture to hope that He will 
make us living temples for His own habitation ? 
On the other hand, when He sees that we really do 
try to be more holy and more sincere ; that we do 
try to rely more on His strength, and conquer our 



144 



THE FALSE WA Y, 



temptations and mortify our sinful lusts ; then is 
He willing to strengthen that weakness, which we 
feel more and more, with His own perfect suffi- 
ciency ; and to *^hold us up with His right hand 
and say unto us, Fear not, I will help thee." 

Oh ! how happy is that soul, which, though per- 
fectly conscious of its own sin, can yet confidently 
repose in the bosom of a Saviour's love, and say 
with the veteran Apostle, I know whom I have 
believed !" How blest is he who, with the highest 
respect for ordinances and forms of worship, can 
look through them to that which they signify and 
represent : piercing through the veil, and gazing by 
faith on that holy of holies, on the glorious com- 
pany of saints and angels with whom it is his highest 
privilege to worship now ; and with whom he hopes 
some day to be united, and to share in their un- 
ceasing service of praise to the most high God ! 

There is a day coming when it will but little avail 
to look back on the moral life, the unstained 
character, the spotless reputation in which we have 
lived among men, unless we can also look back to a 
life devoted to God ; days and years of progressive 
improvement; not a stationary life but an advancing 
one ; not a heartless but a quickening religion. 
Those only who are steadily travelling onwards can 
look forward with satisfaction to the end of the 
journey : those only who are running the race 
with patience" can look forward hopefully to the 
conqueror's crown : those only who are fighting now 
like good soldiers of Jesus Christ can love to dwell 
upon the victory won. 



THE FALSE WAY, 



H5 



And then when the means of grace shall have 
passed away, when ordinances shall have been for 
ever removed, the glorious spirit shall gleam brighter 
and brighter as it rises upwards in its winged flight 
above the clouds and vapours of a vanishing world, 
till it joins the blissful communion of ''the saints 
in light," and bathes in the floods of the excellent 
glory. 



THE END. 



CHISWICK PRESS :— PRINTED BY WHITTINGHAM AND WILKINS, 
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE. 



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